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S. HRG. 111–661 

DOES INDIAN SCHOOL SAFETY GET A PASSING 

GRADE? 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

MAY 13, 2010 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Indian Affairs 

( 

(II) 

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS 

BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota, Chairman 

JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming, Vice Chairman 

DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii 

KENT CONRAD, North Dakota 

DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii 

TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota 

MARIA CANTWELL, Washington 

JON TESTER, Montana 

TOM UDALL, New Mexico 

AL FRANKEN, Minnesota 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska 

TOM COBURN, M.D., Oklahoma 

MIKE CRAPO, Idaho 

MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska 

ALLISON C. BINNEY, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

DAVID A. MULLON JR., Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Hearing held on May 13, 2010 ............................................................................... 1 

Statement of Senator Barrasso ............................................................................... 2 

Statement of Senator Dorgan ................................................................................. 1 

Statement of Senator Franken ............................................................................... 3 

Statement of Senator Johnson ................................................................................ 21 

Statement of Senator Tester ................................................................................... 4 

Statement of Senator Udall .................................................................................... 4 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 5 

WITNESSES

Echo Hawk, Hon. Larry J., Assistant Secretary, Indian affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior, accompanied by Bart Stevens, Acting Director, Bureau 

of Indian Education, and Jack Rever, Director, Office of Facilities, Environmental and Cultural Resources .......................................................................... 7 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 9 

Fairbanks, Dr. Anthony, Superintendent, Pueblo of Laguna Department of 

Education .............................................................................................................. 34 

Prepared statement with attachments ........................................................... 36 

Kendall, Mary L., Acting Inspector General, U.S. Department of the Interior .. 13 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 14 

Roman Nose, Quinton, Treasurer, National Indian Education Association ....... 26 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 30 

APPENDIX

BlueEyes, Faye, Program Director, Dzilth-Na-O-Dith-Hle Community Grant 

School, Navajo Nation, prepared statement with attachment ......................... 75 

Jaynes, Charles L., Former Chief of Safety and Risk Management, Bureau 

of Indian Affairs, prepared statement ................................................................ 78 

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, prepared statement .................................................. 81 

(1) 

DOES INDIAN SCHOOL SAFETY GET A 

PASSING GRADE? 

THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2010 

U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m. in room 

628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Byron L. Dorgan, 

Chairman of the Committee, presiding. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BYRON L. DORGAN, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA 

The CHAIRMAN. I am going to call the hearing to order. I will be 

joined by my colleagues shortly, but in the interest of starting to 

begin, today we are going to examine a basic and important question of whether Indian children are safe when they attend schools 

that are operated by our Federal Government. 

We operate 184 schools throughout the Interior Department’s 

Bureau of Indian Education. These are 184 schools throughout Indian Country, and the agency is responsible for the safety of 44,000 

children, thousands of teachers and staff who in many cases work 

at and live at these schools. 

The schools are owned and operated by the United States and we 

have an obligation, of course, to ensure that students and faculty 

have a safe place to learn, to teach and to live, in some cases. We 

have had reports previous to this of disrepair and circumstances 

that show that BIA schools are some of the schools in our Country 

that are in most desperate need of new investment and new safety 

regulations. 

So today we are continuing this discussion. It is the case, I think, 

in the past it has been and still is in many respects a circumstance 

where we are failing to meet our obligations. A number of schools 

suffer serious structural problems and lack policies and plans to 

ensure the protection of students, faculty and staff. 

From what we know, it appears that safety inspections are not 

consistently performed. Maintenance and repairs that directly relate to safety are not always prioritized. We have held numerous 

hearings on this, and the Inspector General has issued numerous 

reports describing these problems. 

A recent investigative report by a news organization in Albuquerque, New Mexico highlights some of the problems there. They 

found that several schools in New Mexico had fire alarms that 

failed to work. In one instance, the school silenced the fire alarm 

2 

because it malfunctioned too often. In another school, the fire 

alarms do not work and are so old you could no longer get parts 

to fix them. Only 3 of 36 schools in a 2009 report had safety inspections performed, although they were supposed to be annual inspections. 

The response from the BIA back then was that they just don’t 

have the money to replace fire alarms. Inadequate funding for 

school improvements, repairs and construction is just a chronic and 

an ongoing issue. We all agree on that. The question is what is it 

going to take to fix it. When I hear that we don’t even have capabilities to fix fire alarms at schools, I worry about it. 

Although we all agree that more funding is needed, the Administration in its budget request failed to request an increase in funding for fiscal year 2011. In fact, they asked for a $9 million cut in 

education construction funding. I have requested that the funding 

for school construction be restored to the 2003 level and that would 

be an increase above the President’s current request. 

Funding is always going to continue to be a problem, I understand, but my real concern is that proper policies and procedures 

need to be in place to identify and quickly correct safety issues at 

the Department schools. There needs to be a process for identifying 

and then prioritizing maintenance and repair projects that directly 

relate to safety. 

Department safety officers have identified over 85,000 safety deficiencies at the schools. However, only 25,000 have been corrected. 

So more than two-thirds of safety deficiencies that have been identified remain unaddressed and I think in many cases dangerous. 

The 2007 Inspector General’s report said ‘‘these deficiencies have 

the potential to seriously injure or kill students and faculty and require immediate attention to mitigate the problems.’’ Yet, schools 

on one of my reservations in the State of North Dakota continue 

to have fire alarms that fail to work, sprinkler systems needing to 

be replaced, and no emergency evacuation plans. 

I think there needs to be a clear path from the Department on 

how we are going to address these issues, what the cost is, and 

what kind of plan we develop going forward. We just can’t allow 

tens of thousands of students, faculty and staff to remain in conditions that I think can be and in many cases are unsafe. 

I thank the witnesses that have volunteered to come today. We 

will, I would say before I call on the witnesses, place their full written statements for all of them in the record. We will ask them to 

summarize. We will also leave the record open for two weeks following the hearing for additional submissions. 

Let me call on my colleagues for any opening statements. 

Senator Barrasso? 

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BARRASSO, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM WYOMING 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your holding this hearing today and I want to welcome 

each of our witnesses for being here. 

Mr. Chairman, as you said, having a safe environment to study 

and to learn is essential. It is essential to children’s academic 

achievement. The report in recent years from the Inspector General 

3 

and from tribal leaders indicates that many Indian schools are not 

providing a safe environment. 

The report describes, and I won’t go into each of the specific details, Mr. Chairman, because you have clearly done that in a very 

effective way, but what we all see is an environment that is unacceptable, including major and minor construction deficiencies, missing emergency preparedness plans, school violence indicators, and 

failure to perform background checks on employees. 

So in today’s hearing, Mr. Chairman, I hope we will hear about 

progress, progress that the Department of the Interior has made to 

meet the recommendations of the Inspector General. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. 

Senator Franken? 

STATEMENT OF HON. AL FRANKEN, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA 

Senator FRANKEN. Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this 

hearing on this important issue of safety in Indian schools. I have 

talked about the deteriorating condition of Indian schools time and 

time again in this Committee. The condition of BIA’s schools is an 

unconscionable threat to the health and well being of children in 

Indian Country. 

The budget for Indian school construction has been consistently 

cut since 2004, and this year is unfortunately no exception. The 

President’s budget cuts school construction by $9 million even after 

accounting for internal transfers between BIE accounts. 

I have worked with Chairman Dorgan and several of my col- leagues on this Committee to call for a return to the level of $293 

million that we appropriated for Indian school construction back in 

2003. That will allow us to finally get to schools like the Bug-ONay-Ge-Shig School at Leech Lake Reservation. The condition of 

these schools is an injustice. There is just no other way to put it. 

We have to do something about it. 

In addressing school safety in Indian Country, we must also address school violence, an issue that rings close to home in Minnesota. On March 21 of this year, Minnesota and the Nation commemorated the five-year anniversary of the Red Lake Massacre. 

On that tragic day, a 16 year old student on Red Lake Reservation 

shot and killed his grandfather, his grandfather’s girlfriend and 

others at Red Lake High School before taking his own life. 

In the wake of the massacre, the Red Lake community decided 

that they would not be defined by the tragedy. Instead, they chose 

to be defined by their ability to overcome it. Over the past few 

years, the Red Lake community has worked tirelessly to improve 

the safety and well being of its students. As part of this effort, the 

Red Lake School District has instituted reforms to reduce school violence. The district has, for example, implemented behavioral management and anti-bullying programs in the schools. As a result, 

school discipline problems in the district have decreased dramatically. 

School safety challenges, however, are not confined to the boundaries of Red Lake. As a recent report by the Department of Interior 

Inspector General’s Office shows, schools across Indian Country are 

4 

ill-equipped to protect their students from internal and external 

threats of violence. For example, the Inspector General’s Office 

found that many BIE schools failed to provide their staff with adequate training on preventing violence and responding to emergencies. This is very concerning. 

The Red Lake community has shown us what we can do to address the challenge. It is time that we provide schools across Indian Country with the support that they need to adopt the types 

of reforms that the Red Lake community has instituted. 

I agree with my colleague, Senator Udall, that we have a national emergency on our hands. We must act before it is too late. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Tester? 

STATEMENT OF HON. JON TESTER, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA 

Senator TESTER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I want to echo the comments by the previous Senators about my 

appreciation for you holding this meeting. I want to thank the panelists for being here today. 

Outside of the obvious problem of unsafe schools, and personal 

bodily injury, we all know for a fact that poverty runs high in Indian Country. We all know for a fact that, at least in Montana and 

I am not so sure it isn’t this way around the Country, if you want 

to know where the at-risk population is, it is our Native Americans. 

If you don’t have safety in schools, there is no way you are going 

to know how to read or write; no way you are going to have the 

opportunity to learn; no way you are going to be able to really focus 

and develop the kind of skills it is going to take to develop an economy that right now in Montana and many reservations is about 70 

percent to 80 percent unemployment. 

The bottom line is, all this stuff joins together. All this stuff 

dovetails with one another. And this is a problem that is so obvious 

that if we can’t fix this, there is no way we can give folks hope that 

need hope more than anybody else. 

So with that, I do appreciate the panel being here. I appreciate 

the Chairman stepping up to the plate once again and holding a 

hearing on a topic that is very, very important. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Tester, thank you very much. 

We are joined by the Honorable Larry Echo Hawk. 

Senator Udall, how are you? Senator Udall, do you have an opening statement? 

Senator UDALL. Yes, I think so. Did Senator Tester provide one? 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Tester has already delivered an opening 

statement, to a standing ovation. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator UDALL. Thank you very much. 

STATEMENT OF HON. TOM UDALL, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO 

Chairman Dorgan, I want to thank you for holding this hearing. 

It is a very important hearing both for the Country and native students, and it is also important to New Mexico because we have reVerDate Nov 24 2008 10:20 Jan 18, 2011 Jkt 061712 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\DOCS\61712.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
5 

cently had some incidents that have highlighted the problem in our 

schools. 

I would like to welcome all of our witnesses, especially my good 

friend, Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk and the Laguna 

School Superintendent, Dr. Fairbanks. I am pleased today to welcome Dr. Fairbanks to witness before the Committee on the important issue of BIA safety, and specifically on his experience in the 

Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico. 

As Superintendent with the Pueblo of Laguna Department of 

Education since 2007, Dr. Fairbanks has direct experience struggling to make it through the long line of maintenance and construction backlogs while the Pueblo’s elementary school continues to 

sink deeper into despair. 

Dr. Fairbanks has been an advocate of education for over 28 

years across the Country. He previously served as the Assistant 

Professor for New Mexico State University, as the Native American 

Development Specialist for the University of Wisconsin, and as an 

elementary school Principal and a pre–12 Dean of Students, and as 

a middle school and high school football coach. 

Dr. Fairbanks has a master’s degree in education, a doctorate in 

educational policy and administration, and is a Ojibwe of Red Lake 

and White Earth Indian Reservations in Minnesota. And we welcome him as a representative of the Pueblo of Laguna and the 

many other tribes in New Mexico that want to educate their students in good, safe schools. 

So I am going to put the rest of my statement, Chairman Dorgan, in the record, but as you all know, I have been calling for a 

Marshall Plan to eliminate the backlog in construction and maintenance of BIA facilities, and at the same time, the taxpayers and 

native communities deserve assurance that these monies will be 

spent accountably and that they would be spent in a cost-effective 

way. 

So with that, thank you very much. I am very much looking forward to the witnesses today. 

[The prepared statement of Senator Udall follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. TOM UDALL, U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO

I want to thank Chairman Dorgan for holding this hearing to examine school safety in tribal schools, and what must be done to keep our Native schoolchildren and 

staff safe and secure in these facilities. 

I would like to welcome all of our witnesses this morning, including my good 

friend, Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk, and Laguna School District superintendent, Dr. Fairbanks. 

I am pleased today to welcome Dr. Anthony R. Fairbanks to witness before the 

Committee on the important issue of BIA school safety, and specifically on his experience in the Pueblo of Laguna in my state of New Mexico. As Superintendent with 

the Pueblo of Laguna Department of Education since 2007, Dr. Fairbanks has direct 

experience struggling to make it through the long line of maintenance and construction backlogs, while the Pueblo’s elementary school continued to sink deeper into 

disrepair. 

Dr. Fairbanks has been an advocate of education for over 28 years across the 

country. He previously served as an Assistant Professor for New Mexico State University, as the Native American Development Specialist for the University of Wisconsin, as an elementary school principal, as Pre-K–12 Dean of Students, and as a 

middle and high school football coach. 

Dr. Fairbanks has a Master’s Degree in Education, and a Doctorate in Educational Policy and Administration. 

6 

Dr. Fairbanks is Ojibwe from the Red Lake and White Earth Indian reservations 

in Minnesota, and today we welcome him as a representative of the Pueblo of Laguna and the many other tribes in New Mexico that to educate their children in 

good safe schools. 

Welcome. 

I hope some of the witnesses will describe their experiences working to improve 

school facilities and safety, and I’m eager to hear their recommendations for how 

to do better—for we must do much better. 

Some of you may know that I have been calling for a ‘‘Marshall Plan’’ to eliminate 

the backlog in construction and maintenance of BIA facilities. At the same time, the 

taxpayers and Native communities deserve assurance and accountability that monies appropriated for these purposes are spent in the most cost-effective manner. I am aware that there currently exists a backlog of about $1.3 billion to repair 

or replace 64 schools in poor condition—facilities that have serious structural deficiencies, are not handicapped accessible, and are in violation of building and fire 

codes. That’s 35 percent of all tribal schools, and 16 of those 64 tribal schools are 

in my state of New Mexico, including Laguna Elementary School. 

Last month, I joined Senators Dorgan and Franken in asking the Senate Budget 

Committee to increase funding for BIA Education Construction to the 2003 funding 

level of $293 million, rather than decrease funding by $8.9 million as proposed in 

the President’s budget. 

What concerns me is that we have known for over a decade that too many of our 

tribal schools are in a terrible state of disrepair, affecting health, safety, and learning. 

I want the best for our tribal communities. I know we all do. But I’m not persuaded that we have all acted well to bring all of our tribal facilities at least up 

to code. In fact, I believe that two-third’s of the school facilities rated in ‘‘poor’’ condition in 2001 remain in poor condition today, with others improved only to ‘‘fair’’ 

condition. 

I’d like to hear what plan is in place to address the deficiencies—including those 

recommended by several Office of Inspector General reports. My understanding is 

that there may be 60,000 safety deficiencies found in the past 6 years that remain 

unaddressed. 60,000. 

How can this be, if there are tens of millions of dollars that remain unspent each 

year by the Office of Facilities Management and Construction? 

I hope to hear how funding is prioritized—are the schools with the greatest deficiencies at the top of the priority list? 

How are our appropriated funds used and accounted for, how are our tribal school 

facilities inspected and how are deficiencies addressed? 

This is a critically important issue and I am pleased we are exploring it in greater 

depth today. However, it is important that we follow up with action. I look forward 

to hearing from our distinguished panel about how best to do so. 

Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Udall, thank you very much. And thanks 

for your work on this subject. It is the case, all of us understand 

that when the United States Government has a school, it is their 

school. We have a trust responsibility to run this school for Indian 

children. If we are not putting these children in classrooms that we 

are proud of, that are up to date, safe and so on, that is our responsibility. We can’t ignore that responsibility. 

We are joined by the Honorable Larry Echo Hawk, Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior. He is the Assistant Secretary of the Interior, I should say, 

but in that position runs the BIA. He is accompanied by Bart Stevens, Acting Director of the Bureau of Indian Education and Jack 

Rever, who is the Director of the Office of Facilities, Environmental 

Safety and Cultural Resources. 

Mr. Echo Hawk, Mr. Stevens, and Mr. Rever, thank you. 

We are also joined by Mary Kendall, Acting Inspector General at 

the U.S. Department of the Interior. 

Ms. Kendall, thank you for being here. 

Mr. Echo Hawk, you may proceed. 

7 

STATEMENT OF HON. LARRY J. ECHO HAWK, ASSISTANT 

SECRETARY, INDIAN AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE 

INTERIOR, ACCOMPANIED BY BART STEVENS, ACTING 

DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF INDIAN EDUCATION, AND 

JACK REVER, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF FACILITIES, 

ENVIRONMENTAL AND CULTURAL RESOURCES 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Mr. Chairman and Mr. Vice Chairman and 

Members of the Committee, it is a pleasure for me to be with you 

today to talk about the important matter of school safety. 

I have with me today the Acting Director of the Bureau of Indian 

Education, Bart Stevens, seated to my right; and also Jack Rever, 

who is the Director of the Office of Facilities, Environmental Safety 

and Cultural Resources, to my left. 

I will make brief opening comments, and then we will be, of 

course, available to answer whatever questions you may have. 

Indian education is a very high priority for the Administration. 

Back on January 11 of this year, Secretary Salazar reached out to 

Indian Country and invited into his office about a dozen Indian 

education experts to counsel with, have dialogue with about what 

we can do to better address the needs of Indian education. 

In that meeting was also the Education Secretary Arne Duncan, 

and that was nice to see because there is an emphasis point made 

on collaborating with the Department of Education to assure that 

we are bringing all the resources we can to bear on the important 

issues as we try to achieve quality education for our Bureau of Indian Education schools. 

And we are focusing on everything that it takes to achieve quality education. Of course, academic performance is our primary goal, 

but we have to pay attention, of course, to physical facilities to 

make sure they are adequate and safe and secure schools. 

And so that is why we are here today to talk about what it is 

going to take to make sure that every student has a safe and secure place to learn. To accomplish that task, we need stable leadership, and we have had an Acting Director for the Bureau of Indian 

Education since 2007. 

Secretary Salazar has been very strong in communicating that 

we need to get on board a permanent Director of the Bureau of Indian Education, and I am pleased to say that as of last Friday on 

May 7, we announced the selection of Keith Moore to serve as the 

new Director for the Bureau of Indian Education. He is currently 

serving as the Chief Diversity Officer for the University of South 

Dakota, and he has previously served as the Indian Education Director for the State of South Dakota. He will be assuming his responsibilities on June 1. 

So Secretary Salazar and I look forward to working with Keith 

Moore to advance the quality of education for American Indians 

and Alaska Natives. 

We are doing our best to respond to the safety concerns that are 

identified by Office of Inspector General reports, as well as investigative reports that have recently been brought to public attention. 

Let me just briefly highlight some of the things that we have done 

just recently to respond to those reports, and then we will be able 

to respond to more specific questions that I am sure you will have. 

8 

In response to I.G. reports, we have developed training materials 

that address the safety concerns and numerous training sessions 

have already been held to make sure that administrators and 

school personnel and other individuals responsible for school safety 

know what the challenges are and how to respond to in an appropriate way. The Bureau of Indian Education is also conducting 

school safety visits. Those are underway for all of the 184 schools 

that we have responsibility for. Those will be concluded by May of 

2012, according to our present schedule. 

School safety specialists have been hired by the Bureau of Indian 

Education recently, and we are also working on a number of national policies pertaining to safe and secure operation of BIE 

schools. 

On December 8th of 2009, we convened a Safe Schools Summit 

here in Washington, D.C. and this was an effort to reach out to 

other Federal agencies and also private organizations to collaborate 

so that we could cultivate relationships and talk about how to put 

in place strategic partnerships that would address some things that 

will help in this effort to achieve safety in schools. 

I think it is also important to point out that we are addressing 

safety school needs in a broader context. Many of the Bureau of Indian Education Schools are located in high crime areas, which 

means that we have to address crime in other ways besides what 

is specifically targeted to what is happening in the classroom. 

This Committee has heard previous testimony that we have presented recently at that hearing. My Senior Policy Adviser Wizipan 

Garriott addressed staffing challenges that we face, as well as 

training changes that we are making to make sure that we are 

achieving high-quality police officers and detention officers. 

We are also in the midst of what we call high priority performance goals for law enforcement in four select communities in Indian 

Country. We are demonstrating with additional resources and some 

very careful thought about how to craft individual plans for particular communities that we can address the crime rates that are 

occurring out there, turn the corner, and make those communities 

safer. 

Recently, we have had connection with the Office of National 

Drug Control Policy. I was in Albuquerque just last week where 

they unveiled their anti-meth Indian Country initiative. And next 

week, I will be attending a meeting that has been convened by Director Kerlikowske here in Washington where we will talk about a 

drug control strategy. Indian Affairs will be represented in those 

discussions. 

One of the other things that I think that has not received a lot 

of attention that I think is very important is the Coordinating 

Council for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. That is 

something that is chaired by the Attorney General of the United 

States and various Cabinet departments are represented on that 

Coordinating Council. 

The purpose is to make sure the Federal Government properly 

coordinates all resources of the Federal Government when it is addressing juvenile delinquency issues. They spotlight certain things 

that they are going to try to achieve each year, and we intervened 

early in the process and suggested that they take on Indian youth 

9 

as one of their four focus areas. I argued in behalf of that and the 

Council voted to make Indian youth one of their priority subjects. 

So we are going to be working with the Attorney General and other 

Cabinet departments to make sure that we are spotlighting some 

things that we can make progress on with regard to juvenile delinquency. My Policy Adviser, Wizi Garriott, is the Co-Chair of the 

working group that is addressing the Indian youth issues. 

We are also trying to spotlight efforts to improve how we are addressing suicide prevention. There are already programs in place to 

do that, but we are trying to enhance the efforts that we are making to address youth suicide. We are hoping to collaborate with various agencies, even including State governments, to convene a 

Youth Suicide Summit later in the summer. 

I wanted to briefly comment, since it has been raised, about the 2011 budget where there has been a $9 million decrease in the construction budget that has obvious impact on our efforts to try to 

shore up certain things that we will be talking about today. But 

also in that budget is an increase of $8.9 million. And that $8.9 

million will provide some funding for safe and secure programs 

that target high-risk student behavior, staff training, student counseling, extracurricular activities and security camera systems and 

lighting. That is $3.9 million. And there is an increase of $3 million for tribal grant support. 

This is for school systems that are not under our direct supervision, 

but it gives them the administrative funding to have flexibility to 

address the very things that we are going to be talking about today 

in those grant schools. In addition, there is $2 million to establish some environmental 

professionals that will be paying attention, and this will be about 

a dozen positions, to environmental hazards that are occurring in 

schools. What we are talking about here would be toxic waste and 

other substances that have been identified by the EPA. These are 

problems in all of our Federal buildings, schools included. And so 

all 183 schools will be impacted by the work that is done if that 

budget request is met. 

Now, I know that it is challenging times when it comes to budget, but of course we can do really good things with additional resources, but we are not waiting for additional resources. I can assure you that given the present budget that we have and whatever 

budget is approved for 2011 that we will make the very best effort 

that we can to address school safety problems. 

I look forward to working with this Committee to assure that Native American students have the opportunity to obtain a quality 

education and that means assuring that we provide them with a 

safe and secure place to go to school. 

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Echo Hawk follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. LARRY J. ECHO HAWK, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, 

INDIAN AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Good morning Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chairman, and members of the Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to provide the Department of the Interior’s 

views on the safety conditions of schools under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). The Administration is committed to providing high-quality 

educational opportunities for the students who are educated in the 183 BIE-funded 

10 

elementary and secondary schools, consistent with the Federal Government’s trust 

responsibility for Indian education. In order to fulfill this responsibility, it is imperative that the Department provide these students with safe and healthy environments in which to learn. We are working hard to deploy our resources in the most 

effective and efficient manner possible to improve BIE facilities. 

Background 

The BIE currently funds 183 academic and resident-only facilities on 63 reservations in 23 states, in addition to providing funding for 26 Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) and two tribal technical colleges. The BIE also operates two postsecondary institutions. 

Federal funding for the education of American Indian students comes from both 

the BIE and the Department of Education. The 183 BIE elementary and secondary 

schools educate approximately 42,000 students, which represents a small fraction of 

the total American Indian student population in the United States. Despite our 

many challenges in BIE, we are making strides in improving Indian education. 

After declines in previous years, we have seen an increase of 9 percent in the number of BIE schools meeting adequate yearly progress (AYP) from school year 2007– 

2008 to 2008–2009, but we are still far from achieving our goals. This Administration is deeply committed to moving things in the right direction. 

Collaborative Efforts on Indian Education Within the BIE 

President Obama has made improving our nation’s education system a top priority, stating, ‘‘[w]e have an obligation and a responsibility to be investing in our 

students and our schools.’’ 

With this focus, the President has also charged those in his Administration with 

living up to these responsibilities by improving the delivery of educational services 

to Indian Country. This charge requires us to work across various agencies, and 

with tribal leaders, to identify and implement this objective in the best way possible. 

Earlier this year, Secretary Salazar convened an historic meeting with Indian 

education experts from across the nation, along with Secretary of Education Arne 

Duncan and me. This meeting allowed senior administration officials and Indian 

Country leaders to begin a candid dialogue about what works in providing education 

services to Indian Country. We look forward to continuing this dialogue. 

I am happy to report that my senior staff has been working closely with members 

of Secretary Duncan’s staff on coordinating our resources to maximize our impact 

on Indian education. I have been impressed by Secretary Duncan’s commitment to 

improving education for American children, and his keen awareness of the needs in 

Indian Country. 

Recently, several senior officials from the Department of Education, including the 

Under Secretary, Martha Kanter, the General Counsel, Charlie Rose, and various 

Assistant Secretaries and Deputy Assistant Secretaries held four regional consultations on tribal lands on the subject of Indian education. These senior officials spent 

time visiting with administrators, teachers, and students at BIE schools. They were 

able to witness firsthand the conditions in a number of these schools. 

My staff is working with other federal departments to better coordinate our delivery of education-related services. Wizipan Garriott, my Policy Advisor, is serving as 

Co-Chairman of the Tribal Youth and Juvenile Justice Work Group of the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (Coordinating Council). The Coordinating Council, which is chaired by Attorney General Eric Holder, 

is an independent body within the executive branch of the Federal Government. The 

Coordinating Council’s primary functions are to coordinate federal juvenile delinquency prevention programs, federal programs and activities that detain or care for 

unaccompanied juveniles, and federal programs relating to missing and exploited 

children. 

We are also working with the Indian Health Service in HHS, and other organizations, to reverse the epidemic of youth suicides in Indian Country. Each young person who attempts to take his or her own life creates a widespread ripple-effect on 

their community, causing a deep and profound impact on students, parents, and 

teachers, and diminishing the richness of their learning environment. We view our 

efforts to combat youth suicide in Indian Country as central to our efforts to improve Indian education. 

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Funding Within DOI/Indian Affairs 

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided much-needed 

funding to replace dilapidated facilities with state-of-the art schools, and to make 

repairs to existing schools to improve the learning environment for thousands of students. The ARRA provided $134.6 million to replace deteriorating Bureau-funded 

11 

schools in a pre-established priority order published in the Federal Register. It also 

provided $143.1 million to repair building structure and system components that are 

necessary to sustain and prolong the useful life of Bureau-funded education buildings. Projects that did not receive funding under ARRA have been identified to improve the safety and functionality of facilities and improve the educational environment for the Indian children who attend those facilities. 

Director of the Bureau of Indian Education 

Upon taking office, we worked to identify a number of improvements that needed 

to be made to enhance the delivery of our education services. We realized immediately that it was imperative to bring stability and leadership to the BIE, which 

is why we worked together with Indian Country to select a new Director for the Bureau of Indian Education. 

I am happy to report that, after a very lengthy process, Mr. Keith Moore was selected to become the new Director for the BIE and will begin his duties on June 

1, 2010. 

Mr. Moore most recently held the position of Chief Diversity Officer at the University of South Dakota. He has also served as the Indian Education Director for the 

State of South Dakota. Mr. Moore graduated in 1990 from Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota with a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and 

Physical Education/Social Sciences, and he received a Masters degree in Educational 

Administration from South Dakota State University—Brookings in 2002. He also 

holds a Governor Rounds’ South Dakota Leadership Development Program MastersLevel Certification and he received a Specialist Degree in Educational Leadership 

from Montana State University—Bozeman in 2009. 

Mr. Moore will be responsible for the line direction and management of all education functions, including the formation of policies and procedures, the supervision 

of all program activities and the approval of the expenditure of funds appropriated 

for education functions. Secretary Salazar and I will be looking to Mr. Moore to help 

carry forward the initiatives at the BIE that help improve the quality of education 

for our Indian Youth. 

Meeting our Challenges 

A. Office of Inspector General Report 

As I indicated above, we are well aware of the challenges we face in Indian Country, and we are eager to tackle those challenges head-on. This is why, when the Bureau received a report by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) highlighting concerns about school violence at BIE-funded schools across our nation, I embraced 

these recommendations and sought to make changes. The February 2010 OIG Report made four recommendations to address the need to improve safety for our students and our teachers at BIE facilities. We’ve taken immediate steps to implement 

those recommendations, and to improve the overall security climate at our learning 

institutions. 

First, the BIE is providing—to both BIE staff and tribal education staff—training 

in such areas as: anger management; bullying prevention; suicide prevention; drug 

abuse resistance; emergency preparedness; and, continuity of operations. The BIE 

hosted the National Safe and Secure Schools Conference in Dallas, Texas, which 

provided participants from our funded schools with training and resources on a 

number of these, and other, issues. This effort was only a beginning; the BIE has 

also provided other training such as: 

• 10 research-based Bullying and Suicide Prevention training sessions for 450 

participants from 183 schools and dorms. 

• 4 Native Hope Suicide Prevention trainings. 

• Annual training at its Summer Institutes to address school safety issues. 

In addition to conventional training, BIE has sought to implement innovative solutions with its Positive Best Behavior Supports Project (Project). The Project is an 

evidence-based discipline program which provides school-wide approaches to reducing the number of instances of anti-social or violent behavior, and supports positive 

behavioral changes. The BIE is currently providing Project training to staff at 

schools across Indian Country. Since January 2009, 227 individuals from 49 schools 

have received this training. Our trainers have visited 23 sites to provide technical 

assistance and perform 84 evaluation assessments. 

BIE staff are also currently engaged in a federal agency collaborative working 

group to coordinate and improve bullying prevention—including the organization of 

a bullying prevention summit this summer. Materials from the federal Stop Bullying Now campaign have been sent to Indian Health Service area offices. 

12 

We are also putting the final touches on internal policies and procedures for 

Standard Operating Procedures for all BIE-operated schools to address the OIG recommendations, and to address additional areas, such as: a Student Health Service; 

Prohibiting Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco and Inhalants; Medication; and Sexual Harassment. We hope to have these policies and procedures in place by early summer. 

With respect to the two remaining OIG recommendations, the BIE is working on 

both in tandem in a phased approach to conduct school visits and develop safety 

policies specific to each school site. Work began immediately by BIE with Phase 1 

of the 3-phase plan to be concluded for the first 20 schools by October 1, 2010. To 

date, 18 schools have been visited. Phase 2 will target 20 more schools with a target 

completion date of May 1, 2011; and Phase 3 will target the remaining 143 schools 

to be completed by May 1, 2012. 

B. BIA Safety Program 

Since 2002, the condition of federally funded Indian schools has improved dramatically. Over $2.2 billion in construction and repair and maintenance funds have 

been devoted to reducing the number of schools in poor condition as determined by 

the Facilities Condition Index (FCI) by 50 percent. Note that a school is defined as 

being in poor condition if it has an FCI of over 0.10; however, being in ‘‘poor condition’’ does not necessarily imply that critical health and safety issues are present. 

Yet we recognize that more must be done. 

The BIA’s safety program addresses life safety deficiencies first and foremost. Life 

safety deficiencies are considered to be work that needs to be completed as a result 

of safety inspection reports. This is to ensure that those most critical situations are 

addressed immediately. Indian Affairs has ensured that these inspections continue 

by hiring contractors to conduct the inspections when necessary. Projects are 

prioritized through this process by safety code designation, such as life safety code, 

EPA requirements, and ADA requirements. Funds from the Bureau’s Minor Improvement and Repair Program, commonly referred to as MI&R, are used for the 

abatement of those identified critical deficiencies costing less than $2,500. The Education MI&R program for FY 2010 is funded at $7.6 million, and other relevant line 

items such as Condition Assessment, Emergency Repair, and Environmental 

Projects provide an additional $8.1 million for similar work. 

Conclusion 

In my prior response to this Committee on February 25, 2010, when asked about 

our estimated school construction backlog, I stated that we have an estimated school 

construction need of $1.3 billion. 

This is the estimated cost to bring the 63 schools remaining in poor condition 

(after all currently available funding is used) to an acceptable level. In some instances, this figure includes more than simply fixing the deferred maintenance 

items. For example, if a school has a number of leaks in the roof, in the long run 

it will be more economical to replace the entire roof rather than continue to fix leaks 

year after year. Therefore, the cost to replace the entire roof in included in the figure above, rather than the cost to repair all the separate leaks. Likewise, it might 

also be more economical to replace an entire building or school rather than to repair 

a number of deferred maintenance projects. If this is the case, the cost to replace 

the building is included above. It is important to note that the cost to simply repair 

the deferred maintenance at each of these schools on a project by project basis is 

much less than this $1.3 billion. However, we cannot simply use the estimated deferred maintenance cost as a basis for what the true cost will be to bring a school 

into acceptable condition. 

The challenges we face were not created overnight, and we do not expect that they 

will be solved in such a short time. We are working hard to coordinate our efforts 

with other federal agencies, and tribes, to ensure that we can maximize our impact. 

We hope that by collaborating with our sister agencies and Indian Country leaders, we can develop and implement new solutions to improve the conditions for our 

children. We know that we face a daunting task in providing adequate and safe 

school facilities, and we will continue to do the best we can to address school safety 

problems. 

We look forward to working with this Committee to ensure that American Indian 

students have a safe and secure learning environment. Thank you for the opportunity to address this issue and I will be pleased to respond to any questions the 

Committee may have. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Secretary, thank you very much. 

Ms. Kendall, you may proceed. 

13 

STATEMENT OF MARY L. KENDALL, ACTING INSPECTOR 

GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Ms. KENDALL. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Members of the 

Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify this morning 

about school safety in Bureau of Indian Education-funded schools. 

As you know, in February of this year, the Office of Inspector 

General issued an evaluation of school violence prevention measures. We conducted this review to determine the quality of school 

safety measures in preventing violence against both students and 

staff from internal and external threats. 

Overall, our evaluation revealed many indicators of potential violence, insufficient school policies aimed at preventing violence, and 

substantial deficiencies in preventive and emergency safety procedures. As a result, many schools are dangerous unprepared to prevent violence and ensure the safety of students and staff. 

Perhaps one of the most critical methods of deterring on-campus 

violence lies in the overall awareness, understanding and ability to 

detect indicators of violence by school staff and administrators. In 

May of 2002, the U.S. Secret Service issued a report analyzing 37 

school-based attacks and found that most attackers displayed indicators of violence in advance of an incident. 

We learned, however, that training in basic violence prevention 

such as anger management, bully prevention and gang awareness 

had not been provided at many of the schools we visited. Additionally, staff members at some schools stated that they were not 

trained on how to recognize gang indicators. 

Tracking violence and violent trends within Indian schools is 

particularly problematic because no comprehensive reporting or 

tracking system exists. Because Indian communities suffer from 

high violent crime rates, maintaining a secure campus is as important as keeping weapons off campus. 

We identified an array of physical security deficiencies such as 

security fencing, camera surveillance systems, visitor procedures 

and security guards. More than 80 percent of the schools we visited 

did not have adequate fencing, allowing for the potential of unauthorized individuals to enter the campuses. At White Shield school 

in rural North Dakota, for example, there is no fencing, nor a security guard. 

Almost all the schools had operable surveillance cameras, but 

many of the systems had flaws. Most schools, for instance, did not 

operate their systems in real time, missing the opportunity for 

using this valuable tool to prevent or defuse incidents of violence. 

Instead, the cameras were used to review past footage and identify 

the instigators of suspicious activities or violence. 

We also found that not every school we visited required visitors 

to sign in or show identification. More than half did not require 

visitors to wear identifying badges. At one school, we purposely bypassed the designated visitor entrance, wandered the school 

grounds, and were able to approach several classrooms without 

being stopped or questions by staff. 

The presence of gang indicators is in almost half of the schools 

we visited. Gang letters and figures were scrawled on the exterior 

walls, bathroom stalls, and inside dormitories. One official at a 

school in Arizona estimated that 75 percent of the school’s students 

14 

were in gangs. Officials at a school near Seattle, Washington said 

that community gang activity had led to the death of four or five 

former students. 

Many schools acknowledge the need to be diligent in recognizing 

and eliminating gang indicators on campus and have done so using 

a variety of available gang prevention programs, including an inclass curriculum taught by law enforcement officers and aimed at 

preventing school delinquency, violence and gang involvement. 

Finally, most of these schools are simply not prepared for an 

emergency. We reviewed emergency plans at almost all schools visited and requested that each school run an emergency drill according to plan. We noted numerous deficiencies in schools’ abilities to 

run the drills due to high staff turnover, ineffective intercom systems, and inadequate classroom security. Some of the lock-down 

drill we observed revealed that classroom doors could only be 

locked from the outside. As a result, staff needed to go outdoors to 

lock the doors with keys, exposing staff and students to potential 

danger. 

These are some of the issues we uncovered during our visits to 

schools throughout Indian Country. 

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony and I would be 

happy to answer any questions the Committee might have. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Kendall follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MARY L. KENDALL, ACTING INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee. Thank you for the 

opportunity to testify today about school safety in Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) 

funded schools. As you know, in February of this year, the Office of Inspector General issued an evaluation of school violence prevention measures. We conducted this 

review to determine the quality of school safety measures in preventing violence 

against both students and staff, from both internal and external threats. 

Overall, our evaluation revealed many indicators of potential violence, deficiencies 

in school policies aimed at preventing violence, and substantial deficiencies in preventative and emergency safety procedures. As a result, many schools are dangerously unprepared to prevent violence and ensure the safety of students and staff. 

In March of 2005, a 16-year-old student shot and killed himself and seven others 

at Red Lake High School, a public school on the Red Lake Indian reservation, indicating that school violence also threatens Indian Country. 

Perhaps one of the most critical methods of deterring on-campus violence lies in 

the overall awareness, understanding and ability to detect indicators of violence by 

school staff and administrators. In May of 2002, the U.S. Secret Service issued a 

report analyzing 37 school-based attacks, and found that most attackers display indicators of violence in advance of an incident. The Red Lake shooter was known to 

have created animation depicting extremely violent acts of death and elaborate 

drawings of people being shot or hanged. 

During our visit to Chemawa Indian School in Oregon, we saw similarly violent 

drawings inside a student’s dormitory room. A portion of one wall was covered with 

depictions of a beheading, stabbing, and a body hanging from a tree. Chemawa 

school officials were unaware of the violent depictions until we brought this to their 

attention. A school official said the student should have been referred for counseling, 

and that dormitory checks were not being adequately performed or the artwork 

would already have been removed. 

Indicators of violence, such as the Chemawa graphic drawings, are reminders that 

deadly acts of violence can strike even seemingly peaceful schools. Teachers, administrators and other staff should be trained to understand and address all indicators 

of violence. We found, however, that training in basic violence prevention such as 

anger management, bully prevention, and gang awareness was not provided at 

many of the schools we visited. Additionally, staff members at some schools stated 

they were not trained on how to recognize gang indicators. 

15 

Tracking violence and/or violent trends within Indian schools is particularly problematic because no functional, comprehensive reporting or tracking system exists. 

While we found few statistics on violence indicators at Indian schools, we found a 

wealth of supporting anecdotal evidence during our visits. For example, we found 

confiscated weapons, signs of gang activity, and substance abuse. 

Weapons end up on campuses as a result of numerous inadequate physical security features. For example, almost all of Sherman Indian School’s 360 students live 

on campus, and many take air transportation to get there. School officials said that 

they rely on airport security to find dangerous items in students’ luggage and do 

not conduct contraband searches upon their arrival. Airport security, however, allows items in checked baggage that the school would not want on campus. Only one 

of the schools we visited used a walk-through metal detector. 

Given the fact that Indian communities suffer from high violent crime rates, 

maintaining a secure campus is as important as keeping weapons off campus. We 

identified an array of physical security deficiencies in areas such as security fencing, 

camera surveillance systems, visitor procedures, and security guards. 

More than 80 percent of the schools we visited did not have adequate fencing, allowing for the potential of unauthorized individuals to enter the campuses. At White 

Shield School in rural North Dakota, there is no fencing or even a security guard. 

In March of 2008, the school locked down for a possible student with a gun; police 

took 30 minutes to arrive after they were called. Fortunately, the situation was resolved peacefully. 

Almost all the schools had operable surveillance cameras, but many of the systems had flaws. Most schools, for instance, did not operate their systems in real 

time, missing out on the possibility of using this valuable tool to prevent or diffuse 

incidents of violence. Instead, the cameras were only used to review past footage 

and identify the instigators of suspicious activities or violence. 

We found that every school we visited had a designated visitor entrance. But a 

large number of schools did not require visitors to sign in or show identification. 

More than half did not require visitors to wear identifying badges. At one school, 

we purposely bypassed the designated visitor entrance, wandered the school 

grounds, and were able to approach several classrooms without being stopped or 

questioned by staff. 

The presence of gang indicators in Indian schools we visited was undeniable. 

Gang letters and figures were scrawled on the exterior walls, bathroom stalls, and 

inside the dormitories of almost half of the schools we visited. One official at a 

school in Arizona estimated that 75 percent of the school’s students were in gangs. 

Other schools expressed concern over students whose parents were active gang 

members. School officials at a school near Seattle, Washington said that community 

gang activity had led to the deaths of four or five former students and the incarceration of several more for gang-related drive-by shootings. 

Many schools acknowledged the need to be diligent in recognizing and eliminating 

gang indicators on campus, and have done so using a variety of available gang prevention programs, such as The GREAT Program, Gang Resistance Education and 

Training, an in-class curriculum taught by a law enforcement officers aimed at preventing school delinquency, violence, and gang involvement. 

Drugs and alcohol also cause significant problems in Indian Country. Alcohol 

abuse is the ‘‘single biggest challenge’’ facing Indian communities and police departments, according to a 2001 National Institute of Justice report. Child abuse, domestic violence, assault, driving under the influence, sale of alcohol to minors, and neglect tend to be byproducts of substance abuse. 

Site visits revealed that even though drug and alcohol abuse may not run rampant inside school walls, they are community issues that affect students at school. 

Local law enforcement and school officials confirmed that drug dealers live within 

a half mile of three different schools we visited. One school official told us that students could easily access drugs and acknowledged many entry points for drugs to 

reach campus. 

Finally, most of these schools are simply not prepared for an emergency. We reviewed emergency plans at almost all schools visited. We requested that each school 

run the emergency drills according to plan to identify any weaknesses. We noted 

numerous deficiencies in schools’ abilities to run the drills due to high staff turnover, ineffective intercom systems, and inadequate classroom security. Lock-down 

drills we observed revealed that most schools had classroom doors that could only 

be locked from the outside. As a result, staff needed to go outside to lock doors with 

keys, exposing staff and students to potential danger. 

These are some of the issues we uncovered in our visits to schools throughout Indian Country. Our February report on school violence was preceded by a report in 

16 

August 2008 addressing preparedness to address violence in BIE operated schools. 

Our findings were not surprisingly similar. 

Mr. Chairman, that concludes my testimony. I would be happy to answer any 

questions the Committee might have. Thank you for the opportunity to appear here 

today. 

The CHAIRMAN. Ms. Kendall, thank you very much. 

To my colleagues, I would say Senator Franken indicated he has 

to leave nearly immediately and wants to ask one question. 

Senator FRANKEN. I apologize. 

The CHAIRMAN. With the indulgence of our colleagues, let me recognize you. 

Senator FRANKEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to 

my colleagues for your indulgence. 

Mr. Echo Hawk, the Circle of Life School on the White Earth 

Reservation in Minnesota is one of the few fortunate BIE schools 

that will be rebuilt in the near future with groundbreaking slated 

for June of this year. In talking to tribe, it seems that the process 

for the school replacement took much longer than it should have. 

It was years and years even after the Federal funding was secured. 

Much of this was due to a lack of responsiveness from BIA. In 

White Earth’s contact with the BIA for the school construction, the 

agency has 21 days to respond to each of the tribe’s submitted 

plans for construction of the school, yet there have been many instances when the BIA has taken over two months to reply and in 

other cases the tribe received no comment or response at all. 

What are you doing to address lack of responsiveness of your regional BIA offices? 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Senator Franken, I think you are aware that 

I have been on the job only 11 months, but I can assure you, and 

I think I am speaking for Secretary Salazar as well, that we take 

these issues very seriously. I like to know when there are problems 

of responsiveness because we will address those issues. 

We have recently added a new Bureau of Indian Affairs Director, 

and I just commented we have a new Bureau of Indian Education 

Director starting on June 1. I look to those individuals to make 

sure that we are responding in a timely manner. 

Senator FRANKEN. Thank you and I hope you stay on top of that. 

I have been told that advocates for American Indian students 

have reached out to the BIA to ask what the Bureau planned to 

do to respond to recommendations in the OIG’s report on school violence. While the BIA’s official written response to the OIG report 

was due on March 3, the advocates were unable to obtain the written response or any concrete answers. 

I appreciate that you are beginning to share the answers with us 

now, but it shouldn’t take a hearing to obtain them. I am noting 

a pattern here. It seems like every time we want information that 

should be readily available to the public, we have to turn up the 

heat and hold a hearing. For example, the BIA finally agreed to 

post its facility condition index list only after my staff made it clear 

that I planned to ask for it to be made publicly available at the 

hearing we recently held on school construction. This pattern to me 

is unacceptable. 

How will the BIA ensure that the actions it will take in response 

to the OIG’s report will be transparent to the public? And what can 

17 

the BIA do to improve the transparency of its operations more generally? 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Senator Franken, I believe in transparency and 

I think this issue came up at a prior time that I testified. And I 

can just assure Committee Members that I will press to make sure 

that we disclose the things that we should be disclosing in a timely 

manner. 

I just invite the Committee Members to call me directly if you 

have constituents that are contacting you with concerns about 

timeliness. I can assure you that I will respond to that. 

Senator FRANKEN. We will do that. 

You say in your written testimony, ‘‘We are working hard to deploy our resources in the most effective and efficient manner possible to improve BIE facilities.’’ I want to address the issue of costs 

of replacing BIA schools. BIA’s Director of Facilities Jack Rever, 

who is here today, told my staff a while back that it cost approximately $30 million to $50 million to replace a BIE school. And 

there is only $52.8 million in the President’s budget for Indian 

school construction for this entire year. So we have an enormous 

cost per school and barely any money in the budget to fund it. 

Mr. Secretary, is the cost of replacing a BIE school comparable 

for the costs associated with schools in non-tribal areas? And if 

there is a difference, what accounts for it? 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Senator Franken, I do not personally know the 

answer to your question about whether or not there are comparable 

costs. Generally, the schools that we build are in isolated areas and 

I assume that would mean that it would be more difficult and costly to construct them. But in terms of the structures that we are 

building, I would have to defer to Jack Rever to see if he has any 

comment. If the Committee would like him to respond, I would be 

glad to have him do so. 

Senator FRANKEN. I would love to know. I would love to have 

some analysis of this because it seems like the schools are awfully 

expensive to build. 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Senator Franken, we can provide an answer to 

that specific question. 

Senator FRANKEN. Thank you. I appreciate that, Mr. Secretary. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize to everyone that I have 

to leave to another hearing. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Senator Franken. 

Senator Tester? 

Senator TESTER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I want to once again thank the panelists for being here. 

The first question, Larry, this hearing is about BIE schools, but 

overall in Indian Country is there a level of violence in Indian 

schools that is unacceptable, from your perspective? 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Senator Tester, yes. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. I don’t know if you have had the ability 

to make a determination on how many schools it is that way. Is 

it in every school that is in Indian Country? Or is it 50 percent of 

them, 75 percent of them? And I know there are a lot of factors in 

there, but do you have any idea on how many schools were violent? 

18 

And Mary, if you know this, it would be good to have you asked. 

But I am just curious what percentage of schools in Indian Country 

where violence is a problem. 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Senator Tester, the BIE schools are located in 

23 different States, but I think generally we all recognize that 

crime in Indian Country is a problem in all regions. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. 

Mary, the investigation that you did, the work that you have 

done, did you see violence across the board in every school you visited? 

Ms. KENDALL. I would say yes. There were indicators of violence 

at all schools. The question of actual violence, we haven’t had a serious incident, I believe, in Indian schools since the Red Lake incident. But the concern we had were the indicators and the preparedness of staff and administration on-site. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. 

Larry, back to you. You had mentioned some things that you 

have done in Indian Country more globally when it comes to violence, and I appreciate those efforts. Specifically, you talked about 

$8.5 million that is being utilized for safe and secure programs, security cameras, teacher training, and environmental hazards, those 

kind of things. 

You are in a position of reasonable authority here. What do you 

think is the key, the one or two or three keys, not only in BIE 

schools, but all schools in Indian Country, that could do to help 

curb the violence? 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Senator Tester, I think the things that we are 

doing right now in response to the I.G. report to provide training, 

as an example, to make sure that our administrators and educators 

understand the things that they should recognize that are a precursor to some violent events. 

There are a number of things that we have to deal with when 

we talk about violence and other threats. But let me just comment 

that the reason we have high crime areas in virtually every part 

of Indian Country has to do with healthy families. I have given a 

couple of speeches recently where I said we are ratcheting up our 

criminal law enforcement. We are going to reduce crime levels 

through tough law enforcement. And I think we have to do that. 

But I have also said at the end of those speeches, we are not 

going to arrest ourselves out of the problem; that we have to create 

healthy families. And so I personally don’t think we are probably 

giving enough attention to that area. 

Senator TESTER. I don’t want to take us off this topic area, but 

you bring up a very good point and I agree with you. We can’t take 

care of it at the back end. We need to start taking care of it at the 

front end. 

Can you tell me what the BIA is doing to help solve or at least 

make inroads into the problem of healthy families? 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Senator Tester, I would say that we are not 

doing enough, but I think to create healthy families, that means 

you need a provider in the home. And when you have Indian communities that have 80 percent to 85 percent unemployment, we 

have to spark the economies. We also have to have social services 

available to be able to help lift those families. 

19 

Senator TESTER. Okay. I would tend to agree. This is such a 

problem, it is hard to get your arms around it because there are 

so many things that impact it, whether it is healthy families, adequate law enforcement, schools that you can be proud of. And when 

you talk about staff training, I am a former teacher myself. If I 

have a choice between going to a school that is safe and clean 

versus a school that is potentially unsafe and unclean, I know what 

decision I am going to make, plus the family impact. 

So I will just close by saying this, and very much respect your 

abilities and your leadership in the Department, but we have limited dollars and we are really going to have to focus on things that 

are going to make a difference. And your leadership in that Department is going to make a big difference as the budget cycle rolls on. 

I would appreciate as we go forth with all the dollars for Indian 

Country that you make sure that the emphasis is where it needs 

to be to do the most good. That is kind of a no-brainer, but the fact 

is that I think you are spot-on when you say we can’t arrest our 

way out of this situation. 

Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Tester, thank you very much. 

Senator Udall? 

Senator UDALL. Thank you, Chairman Dorgan. 

Secretary Echo Hawk, I first want to applaud you for the initiatives you talked about that you are carrying out in order to try to 

get on top of school safety and school violence and all of the problems that plague the BIA schools. 

I think one of the keys is, as you said, mobilizing these other resources around the Federal Government, the Department of Justice 

and Health and Human Services, and getting them involved in the 

problem. That is a very positive thing to see the Department of 

Justice take on the issue that you outlined here a little bit earlier. 

Let me ask you the question, when you look at the resources that 

are needed to do the job in terms of getting the schools safe, and 

then the lack of resources. Obviously, you are using what you have 

right now. How do you determine in the overall picture what are 

the most serious violations at these schools? Where are the kids in 

the most danger? And then how do you tackle those? 

It seems like you have a situation where you have significant deterioration overall, but then identifying the schools where there are 

the worst problems and then trying to tackle those. What do you 

bring to this effort to do that? 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Senator Udall, are you speaking about the 

physical structures? 

Senator UDALL. The structures, the safety violations, the code 

violations, all of the things that have come out in the Inspector 

General reports and other OIG reports and things like that. 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. I understand your question to be how do we 

identify the really critical areas. 

Senator UDALL. Yes, you have so much to do and it is so big, how 

do you get focused in to pick the things that may be a disaster tomorrow, because you can’t do them all? That is my question. Do 

you have somebody on top of that, looking at that and trying to 

identify preventing the disasters of tomorrow? 

20 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Well, I think it has already been testified to 

that the kind of problems that we are talking about exist in virtually all regions, all schools. To prioritize where we put that, there 

has got to be some attention given to that. I don’t know if either 

Jack Rever, he is the one that would probably know most about 

that, or Bart Stevens would have any comment about what specifically they are doing. 

In terms of my knowledge base, I know that the problems are 

pervasive and we are trying to deal with them in all schools. 

Senator UDALL. Yes, yes. I know you are trying to deal with all 

the problems, it is just that if a school is going to fall down and 

kill 20 kids or 100 kids or something like that tomorrow, that is 

the one I would want you to be on top of, rather than the other 

things that are going to happen down the line. That is the kind of 

urgency that I am talking about in my questioning here. 

Mr. REVER. Senator, I am Jack Rever, the Director of Facilities, 

Environmental Culture Resources and Safety, and run the evaluation program for the school, measuring the deficiencies, measuring 

the risk. And so it is a risk management issue that you have identified. 

We have a multitude of inspection processes that we go through. 

We have the annual workplace safety inspections which is OSHAbased reviews, and that is the electrical outlets and whether the 

operating equipment in the shops have proper guards on them to 

make sure the kids or the teachers don’t get hurt. 

We also have triennial inspections by engineers and engineering 

technicians to go through and evaluate each building that we have, 

particularly the schools. And in addition, of course, the primary responsible is to the people on-site, the facility managers. They identify these deficiencies to us. We then go through a risk assessment. 

There are two contexts for all risk assessment. One is the likelihood of occurrence of whatever might be resulting from that deficiency, and then the consequences of that occurrence happening. 

Then we rate those in a category of one through five. One is if it 

is an imminent problem, an emergency. Regardless of cost, it is 

going to be corrected or countered within eight hours. That is the 

requirement and we are very successful. Those never show up on 

any reports because a phone call to my staff in Albuquerque to 

identify that particular problem marshals the resources and the 

dollars to solve it. 

A good example, and this has happened to us. We have had a 

school in which a structural engineer published a report that came 

to my desk within hours that said there was a structural problem. 

I ordered the school closed and the students evacuated until we 

could get a structural engineering firm in there to do a full evaluation. That obviously is number one. 

We do not operate schools that represent an imminent danger to 

students, faculty or visitors. That is how we prioritize our work. I 

wish we had sufficient funds to answer every deficiency, but we 

prioritize the most defficient, most risk to the students and take 

care of it immediately. And we work our way down to the extent 

that our fiscal capability lets us do that. When I say ‘‘fiscal,’’ I 

mean dollars that let us do that. 

21 

That is how we establish priorities for immediate response and 

long-term response for our projects. 

Senator UDALL. That is good to hear. That is good to hear. 

Chairman Dorgan, I know I have run over a little bit and greatly 

appreciate your courtesies on that. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Udall, thank you very much. 

Senator Johnson? 

STATEMENT OF HON. TIM JOHNSON, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM SOUTH DAKOTA 

Senator JOHNSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman 

And welcome to the Committee Mr. Echo Hawk. I applaud your 

choice of BIE Director, Mr. Keith Moore, who is a fellow South Dakotan and is currently at the University of South Dakota. USD’s 

loss is BIE’s gain. 

Indian students in South Dakota often have to travel on dangerous roads and in dangerous weather conditions. Does BIE and 

BIA have a plan for ensuring student safety while traveling to and 

from schools? 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Senator, I am well aware of the problems that 

exist out there on those roadways. As I have traveled in Indian 

Country, tribal leaders bring that to my attention on a regular 

basis and talk about their road and bridge problems. 

We are working with the Department of Transportation to address those needs. There was a substantial amount of ARRA funding that came in that allowed us to take care of part of the problems, but there are still many needs that exist out there. 

We are presently focusing on the equity formula to make sure 

that the funds that we do have available are distributed in an equitable way and we have heard a lot of complaints by tribal leadership that that is not an equitable process right now and we are 

looking into that. 

Senator JOHNSON. There are four regional offices without safety 

officers. What actions are being taken to fill these personnel gaps? 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Senator, I am aware that we have some of the 

regional offices that do not have a safety officer, and we are pressing to make sure that those positions are filled, and that the inspections that we are supposed to be doing are actually done. I 

have seen information that shows that that is not happening, but 

that has been brought to my attention and we are focusing on that 

now. 

Senator JOHNSON. Unsafe school environments also greatly contribute to personnel turnover. What efforts are being made to improve retention of teachers and administrators? 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. That is a good question and a challenging question. I think I am going to defer that question to Bart Stevens, who 

is the Acting Director, to comment on specific things that are done 

to retain and recruit teachers. 

Mr. STEVENS. Thank you. 

As far as retention and recruitment efforts go within the Bureau 

of Indian Education, we recently hired a recruiter who is forming 

partnerships with local universities and colleges in Indian Country 

to actively recruit administrators and teachers. 

22 

As far as retention of Federal teachers, which are one-third of 

our BIE-operated schools, there are incentives in place, differential 

salary increases to retain teachers in those more isolated locations, 

those hard to fill positions. 

As far as the two-thirds of our schools which are tribally controlled grant schools, we have no authority on the turnover or not 

of those schools that are tribally operated, but that is what we are 

doing for our Federal programs that are BIE-controlled. 

Senator JOHNSON. Ms. Kendall, of the 22 Indian schools assessed 

by OIG, were any schools surveyed in South Dakota? If so, which 

ones? 

Ms. KENDALL. Senator Johnson, off the top of my head, I don’t 

recall which ones. I would be happy to provide you that information 

separately. 

Senator JOHNSON. Ms. Kendall, while the BIE has made progress 

on deficiencies identified in the report, many schools in South Dakota experience dangerous conditions and violent atmospheres. Will 

there be another evaluation made in the future? 

Ms. KENDALL. We often will follow up a report with what we call 

a validation effort to make sure that the things that BIE in this 

case have said that they will do in response to our reports have in 

fact been done. 

We want to give them time enough to respond to the report and 

in this case, they have laid out a plan that will be finalized by 

May, 2012. And so it would be at that point that we would probably go out and take another look and validate their efforts. 

Senator JOHNSON. In May, 2012? 

Ms. KENDALL. Yes, sir. 

Senator JOHNSON. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Johnson, thank you very much. 

Let me ask a couple of questions, then we have a second panel 

as well. 

Mr. Echo Hawk, my understanding is that current information 

tells us that Department safety officers have identified 85,000 safety deficiencies at the school system that you run, we run. And only 

25,000 have been corrected. So we have two-thirds of safety deficiencies on a list, apparently, that exists at the BIA that are 

unaddressed. 

How do we reconcile that? How do we justify that? What do we 

tell people, families, taxpayers? This is our school system. And I 

understand that any investigation would show deficiencies, but 

what I don’t understand is this. If we have reports that show there 

are 85,000 safety deficiencies and only one-third have been corrected, what is the deal? 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Senator Dorgan, obviously that is a problem 

when you have any deficiencies in schools, and to be able to only 

address a third of them is cause for concern. But we are addressing 

the priority deficiencies, as Mr. Rever described. We have that 

process in place to identify the most serious, and we are addressing 

those. But part of the problem is just resources, not having the resources to be able to address every single one of them. 

The CHAIRMAN. But let me ask a question, then. My colleague, 

Senator Udall, had a reporter go do a look at a school and did a 

couple of reports that I think are embarrassing to the Federal GovVerDate Nov 24 2008 10:20 Jan 18, 2011 Jkt 061712 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\61712.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
23 

ernment. It is our school system. We are responsible for what happens there. 

On the Pine Hill School, you have 275 kids as young as six years 

old. They don’t have a fire alarm. And so if there were a fire this 

afternoon in the library, elementary school, middle school and high 

school maintenance shops, new dormitories, none of those people in 

those areas would hear a fire alarm. 

Now, is that an urgency or is that one that somebody would say 

comes under your eight-hour limit? If you don’t have a fire alarm, 

send out somebody to fix that fire alarm because if there is a fire, 

kids are going to die? 

So what falls through the cracks here? 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Senator Dorgan, I think on that particular report, I am going to ask Jack Rever to respond because he sent a 

team out there to those very same schools to address those problems. 

The CHAIRMAN. All right. 

Mr. REVER. Mr. Chairman, thank you. It is true that the Pine 

Hill School fire alarm system does not work. Our procedures are 

very specific and this happens throughout the Country, every fire 

alarm system. Many of them are old and they fail, parts of them 

fail, and they go into failure mode. 

It is an absolute requirement within our system that a fire watch 

be posted every hour that that building is occupied. 

The CHAIRMAN. A what? 

Mr. REVER. Fire watch, an individual who has the responsibility 

to make sure that there is somebody out wandering the halls and 

looking for potential fire dangers and sounding an alarm if necessary. 

The CHAIRMAN. Sounding what alarm if the alarm is dead? 

Mr. REVER. There are a variety of ways to do that. You can use 

hand-held warning devices or you can use whistles. You can do 

P.A. system announcements. You can use runners. And those are 

all required under our regulations. 

The CHAIRMAN. I understand, but you are not saying it is okay 

if the fire alarm doesn’t work because there are alternative methods. 

Mr. REVER. Absolutely not, sir, because fire alarms in the condition of the one in Pine Hill are so deteriorated that it has to be 

replaced in kind, and we have a project underway right now out 

of the Recovery Act funds that is going to replace that fire alarm 

system. 

So we are aware of it. It is on our priority list. We have gone through the risk analysis and we have provided over $300,000 just 

for the fire alarm system itself at Pine Hill. 

The CHAIRMAN. Well, the school you run at Standing Rock in 

North Dakota has no fire alarms, no sprinkler system. Does that 

work under your eight-hour rule? 

Mr. REVER. No, sir, it does not, but that is on the list also. 

The CHAIRMAN. But my point is, look, you guys are not coming 

in here saying look, by God, we need more money because kids will 

die if we don’t do this. If there is a fire in Standing Rock today, 

and in the aftermath of that they take a look at what went on 

there, and we know that there is no fire alarm capability and no 

24 

sprinkler system, we knew that and we said it is okay for kids to 

go to school because we know that and we will fix it later. 

That is not acceptable. I am just using the fire alarm in New 

Mexico and North Dakota as an example. If you owned an apartment building and your fire alarm didn’t work; if you as an owner 

weren’t apoplectic about that, shame on you. You wouldn’t dare 

have the liability of owning an apartment building and say it is 

okay if my fire alarm doesn’t work. 

Yet we own a school and we have fire alarms all over the Country that don’t work and we say, well, we will have somebody with 

a whistle in the hallway. That is not acceptable to me. 

Look, I understand that you can find safety violations everywhere in every school system. My point is, Mr. Echo Hawk, if you 

have 85,000 and only one-third are addressed and two-thirds are 

not, and they include things like basic safety issues, real safety 

issues that can kill kids. 

Let me just ask another question because I think in many ways 

the folks at New Mexico have done us a service. I don’t know these 

people that did it, but the journalists that did this said there are 

cracks in load-bearing walls in the school gym. The BIA did direct 

Alamo to hire a structural engineer to evaluate the gym walls. 

They have not provided the money to pay for the evaluation so no 

one, not the Alamo School, the BIA or the students or the faculty 

who use the gym, know whether it is safe or not. 

I don’t understand. In this school as well, the fire alarm system 

hasn’t worked properly in years. They have been asking for upgrades for eight years. I have been in schools where buildings were 

condemned and kids were sitting in classrooms packed 30 in a 

room, one inch apart. Are kids like that going to get the same education as a kid in a suburb going into a reasonably new school with 

18 kids in the classroom? Of course they are not. They don’t have 

the same chance. They are just not going to get the same education. 

What bothers me is we run two school systems in this Country. 

We run school systems for the military on our military bases and 

we do a pretty job of it, frankly. And we run schools for Indian kids 

through the BIA. And frankly, GAO and other reports have shown 

that the amount of disrepair in that school system is unacceptable. 

Mr. Echo Hawk, I would hope you would risk your job coming 

here and saying, you know what? The budget that has been requested is radically insufficient. We have had people do that and 

get fired, because I understand the responsibility of witnesses to 

support the President’s budget. But we are so far short of the 

money necessary to protect these kids in these school systems, we 

just have to do better. 

What I am going to do is I am going to ask the Inspector General, and by the way, we have had far too little attention from the 

Inspector General’s Office on Indian issues, let me say. We have 

taken a look at the activities in the last eight and 10 years of what 

has been done over in the Interior Department with respect to BIA 

issues, and I would like to see much more activity on Indian issues. 

I will be having a chance to visit with the Inspector General. 

We appreciate your work. We just want more attention to things 

that I think are urgent. I am going to be asking both the GAO and 

25 

the Inspector General to take a look at this, but I would also like 

to ask Mr. Echo Hawk to have the BIA submit to us a report and 

tell us if there are 85,000 safety violations out there that have been 

identified, two-thirds of them that have not been corrected, what 

is the criteria by which you will decide when to correct things and 

what things to correct if you are in fact short of money, as you say? 

And I believe you are short of money. 

I think this hearing tells me that there are kids whose lives are 

in danger because we have safety violations that we don’t judge to 

be threats to life and limb. That is not acceptable to me. You might 

say, well, it is not acceptable to me either, but give me the money. 

I say, yes, well, you work for an Administration that submits a 

budget. 

So let’s try to work through this and figure out what our responsibilities are. I appreciate your coming here, and I didn’t mean to 

lecture you. I guess I must have meant to because I did, but it 

bothers me a lot because I have been to a lot of Indian schools. And 

frankly, a lot of these little kids that walk through these doors are 

not getting the same opportunity in life as other kids. And because 

we run these schools, I want these kids that walk through these 

doors to think and for us to think we are sending them through the 

doorways to schools that are some of the best in the world. We are 

not. They are some of the worst in the Country in some cases. 

I don’t want to tarnish all Indian schools because some do a 

great job and some are up to snuff, but we are so far short of the 

work that needs to be done so that we are proud of these schools. 

We still have a lot to do. 

So thank you for coming today. We are going to go to the next 

panel. I want to be in touch with all four of you and continue this 

discussion because it is very, very important. Thank you very 

much. 

I am going to be offering an amendment on the Floor in just a 

moment, and I have asked Senator Udall if he would chair for the 

second panel. I will be back in about 30 minutes. 

By the way, Mr. Secretary, if you wanted a parting comment, you 

are sure welcome to make it. I didn’t mean to cut you off. Did you 

wish to make a parting comment? 

Mr. ECHO HAWK. Thank you, Senator Dorgan, just briefly. 

Just to follow up to your comment, I did say in my testimony 

today that the resources were inadequate. We would try to do the 

best job we could. But I recall that when I appeared before this 

Committee during my confirmation, I was asked a question about 

whether or not I would tell what the need is and I said I would. 

And I will continue to do that. I need to do it more forcefully. 

I appreciate your comments today. I am not too worried about 

losing my job. I didn’t come back here to Washington, D.C. to get 

a step in some direction to another career. I am at the end of my 

career. I have a secure job waiting for me as a law professor when 

I leave, and I will try to be energetic and forceful in communicating 

those messages, because what we are talking about here today is 

vitally important. 

Thank you very much. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Secretary, I know you have the same interests at heart that I and Senator Udall do as well. I want you to 

26 

succeed in your job. I want you to have more resources with which 

to do it and to use these skills in a BIA that works well and addresses problem. 

Thank you very much for being here. 

To our next witnesses, I am going to ask my colleague from New 

Mexico to introduce you and begin. I will be introducing the 

amendment on the floor and be back here hopefully before you are 

completed. 

Senator Udall, thank you very much for your courtesy of doing 

this. If you will introduce the next panel. 

Senator UDALL. [Presiding.] Thank you very much. 

I see Assistant Secretary Echo Hawk is still here. One of the 

things, and we will put this in a question in writing, but my staff 

has given me to look at the total educational construction funding 

here. You look at fiscal year 2004 through 2010, there are large 

amounts of money being carried over from year to year, significant 

amounts of money, millions and millions of dollars. 

So I am wondering with all this money being carried over, we 

should be able to fix a lot of the things that are going on. So it isn’t 

just an issue of additional resources. It is an issue of using the resources that you have from year to year. 

I am going to do everything I can, working with Senator Dorgan 

and the rest of the Committee, to see that we get the message all 

the way up to the President that he needs to come forward with 

a budget that is going to take care of these situations when it 

comes to our school children. 

So with that, let me welcome the next panel. We have with us 

Mr. Quinton Roman Nose, Treasurer, National Indian Education 

Association, Washington, D.C. We also have Dr. Anthony Fairbanks, who I said some nice introductory comments about earlier, 

Superintendent, Pueblo of Laguna, Department of Education. 

I believe our other witness was unable to make it. Is that correct? So we will go forward with both of you. 

Please, Mr. Roman Nose, go ahead. 

STATEMENT OF QUINTON ROMAN NOSE, TREASURER, 

NATIONAL INDIAN EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 

Mr. ROMAN NOSE. Chairman Udall, Members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, thank you for this opportunity to submit 

testimony on behalf of the National Indian Education Association 

about the shocking disparities in the safety of the Bureau of Indian 

Education Schools. 

Founded in 1970, NIEA is the largest Native American education 

organization in the Nation, with a membership of over 3,000 American Indian and Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian educators, 

tribal leaders, school administrators, teachers, elders, parents and 

students. NIEA is dedicated to promoting native education issues 

and embraces every opportunity to advocate for the unique educational and culturally related academic needs of native students. 

NIEA advocates for the unique educational and culturally related 

academic needs of native students, working to ensure that the Federal Government upholds its responsibility for the education of native students through the provision of direct educational services 

and facilities that are safe and structurally sound. 

27 

This is incumbent upon the trust relationship of the United 

States Government with tribal nations. It includes the responsibility of ensuring educational quality and access. 

The environment in which instruction and educational services 

are provided is critical to the achievement of our students and their 

ability to achieve academically and to be healthy, successful members of their Native American communities. However, appalling 

disparities exist in the levels of safety, both structural and personal, in the Bureau of Indian Education-funded schools, creating 

educational environments that are a threat to the emotional and 

physical well being of Native American students. 

In August, 2008, a report issued by the OIG at the Department 

of Interior entitled ‘‘Evaluation of Controls to Prevent Violence at 

BIE-Operated Education Facilities documented the lack of laws, 

presidential orders, or directives outlining safety measures for Indian schools. Even more shocking was the fact that grant agreements for Indian schools do not require a plan for addressing and 

preventing of campus violence. 

In a February, 2010 follow-up report from DOI OIG, Evaluation 

Report: School Violence Prevention, an assessment of safety measures and procedures at 22 Indian Schools revealed many indicators 

of potential violence and deficiencies in school policies aimed at 

preventing violence, and substantial deficiencies in preventive and 

emergency safety procedures, resulting in schools being dangerously unprepared to prevent violence and to ensure the safety 

of students and staff. 

Given these long-term and continuing conditions, native families, 

communities and tribal governments remain appalled that these 

concerns remain unaddressed, while the well being of Native American students hangs in the balance. From the experience of our 

membership in the Native American communities in Indian Country, critical areas needing immediate action include funding to repair structural and equipment deficiencies, appropriate preparation 

and training of personnel and staff, implementation or development 

of policies and procedures that impact school safety, and increase 

in useful collaboration and cooperation among tribal, Federal and 

local agencies with a role in ensuring student safety and well 

being. 

Funding to correct disparity and dangerous conditions on Indian 

facilities. First and foremost is the issue of structural deficiencies 

and lack of funding to address them remains a paramount concern. 

Of the 4,495 educational buildings in the BIE inventory, half are 

more than 30 years old and more than 20 percent are older than 

50 years; 65 percent of the BIE school administrators report the 

physical condition of one or more school buildings as inadequate. 

Although educational conditions have improved dramatically over 

the last few years, the deferred maintenance backlog is still estimated to be over $500 million and increases annually by $56.5 million. Of the 184 BIE Indian schools, one-third of the Indian schools 

are in poor condition and in need of either replacement or substantial repair. 

In addition, lack of consistent functioning electrical systems, 

unrepaired gaping holes in security fences, broken or uninstalled 

28 

surveillance cameras, and unsecurable doors and windows directly 

affect the ability of schools to ensure student and staff safety. 

In 1997, GAO issued a report, Reported Condition and Costs to 

Repair Schools Funded by the BIA, that documented an inventory 

of repair needs for educational facilities totaling $754 million. In 

2004, the backlog for construction and repair was reported to have 

grown to $942 million. 

More recently, in March of 2008, the Consensus Building Institute, with the United States Institute of Environmental Conflict 

Resolution, issued a Final Convening Report: Negotiated Rulemaking Committee on Bureau of Indian Affairs-Funded Schools Facilities Construction. CBI reported in their findings of the conditions of the schools that security needs and related funding are 

major concerns for many schools, aging or poor design may lead to 

a substandard educational environment, and operation and maintenance needs are not matched by operation and maintenance annual 

funding. 

In May of 2007, the OIG, Department of Interior, issued BIA/ 

BIE: Schools In Need of Immediate Action, a flash report that describes the conditions at BIE schools that require immediate action 

to protect health and safety of students and faculty. 

Although the Inspector General visited 13 schools as part of their 

investigation, four schools were highlighted in the flash report. In 

the report, the Inspector General cited the deterioration ranging 

from minor deficiencies such as leaking roofs to severe deficiencies 

such as classroom walls buckling and separating from their foundation. 

In his conclusion, the Inspector General stated that ‘‘failure to 

mitigate these conditions will likely cause injury or death to children and school employees.’’ The flash report describes the alarming and life-threatening situation at BIA schools that the Federal 

Government has created in its failure to properly maintain the 

schools. Native children should not have to risk their lives on a 

daily basis to access the fundamental right to an education. 

Testifying at the NIEA-sponsored BIA/BIE regional hearing in 

the Navajo Nation, Window Rock, Arizona, Hopi Tribal Chairman 

Benjamin Nuvamsa stated, ‘‘Our students are at extremely high 

risk because of exposure to hazardous materials in our school 

buildings. Recently, severe reductions in annual appropriations for 

the building operations, maintenance and repairs, OM&R, program 

results in the ever-increasing number of projects placed in the Facilities Maintenance Inventory System, FMIS. While waiting for 

funding, our students and staff are subjected to exposure to hazardous materials. Almost all schools have asbestos and radon 

issues which put the students and staff at risk.’’ 

The purpose of education construction is to permit BIE to provide 

structurally sound buildings in which native children can learn 

without leaking roofs and peeling paint. It is unjust to expect our 

students to succeed academically when we fail to provide hem with 

a proper environment to achieve success. The amount of funding 

over the past few years has failed to fund tribes at the rate of inflation, once again exacerbating the hardships faced by Native American students. 

29 

Further, the funding that has been allocated over the past few 

years will not keep pace with the tremendous backlog of Indian 

schools and facilities in need of replacement or repair. 

The BIA’s budget has historically been inadequate to meet the 

needs of Native Americans and consequently Indian school needs 

have multiplied. For 2008, the fiscal year funding level was 

$142.94 million. For fiscal year 2007, the funding level was 

$204.956 million, and for 2006, the funding level was $206.787 million. 

Congress and BIA have sought to justify the decrease over the 

past few years by stating it wants to finish ongoing projects. However, NIEA has repeatedly heard from several BIE schools who 

have indicated their shovel ready status. While the Recovery Act did provide $450 million to be shared 

among BIA school construction and repairs, detention facilities, 

roads, and irrigation projects, this funding has provided little headway considering the lengthy list of schools waiting to build and repair their facilities. Therefore, NIEA previously requested a $150.4 

million increase from fiscal year 2010 enacted level of $112.994 

million for a total of $263.4 million in fiscal year 2011 for the BIA 

for Indian school construction and repair. 

The continued deterioration of facilities on Indian land is not 

only a Federal responsibility, it has become a liability of the Federal Government. Old and exceeding their life expectancy by decades, BIA schools require consistent increases in facilities maintenance without offsetting decreases in other programs if 48,000 Indian students are to be educated in structurally sound schools. 

However, in addition to being structurally sound, these schools 

must also be structurally safe with adequate funding to address 

school safety through the use of perimeter fending to secure school 

grounds, surveillance cameras and metal detectors to deter weapons and on-campus crime, and improved locks and other physical 

security measures. 

While structural concerns may be the most visible indicators of 

school safety, several other areas of critical concern also need to be 

swiftly and adequately addressed. 

As noted in the 2010 evaluation report, the staff in many Indian 

education facilities are unaware of or unable to implement basic 

safe plans such as performing lock-downs or school evaluation 

drills. High staff turnover, including principals and other administrators, results in a lack of institutional knowledge about safety 

procedures or available resources used to address and defuse potentially violent situations. 

In addition, lack of funding and a consistent plan for the training 

of incoming personnel means that most staff members lack adequate training in areas critical to student well being. Staff need to 

be trained to recognize and address indicators of potential violence, 

including gangs and suicide prevention, how to address substance 

abuse, bullying prevention, and more. 

In addition, it is important to have adequate funding to provide 

hiring and retention of staff who can provide students with counseling and therapeutic interventions, while also helping to train 

other school staff in appropriate measures for dealing with potential violent situations. 

30 

Previous reports about school conditions and safety measures indicate that implementation or enforcement of policies and procedures that would help to ensure students and staff safety are often 

not implemented or enforced. 

For example, dress codes that prevent the wearing of gang-related colors in schools may not be enforced with consistency or consequences. Also, procedures restricting and monitoring visitor access to schools are critical in maintaining a safe school environment. 

Senator UDALL. Mr. Roman Nose, could you try to wrap and we 

will make sure and put your full statement in the record. 

Mr. ROMAN NOSE. Okay. 

Senator UDALL. We also want to give Dr. Fairbanks time. 

Mr. ROMAN NOSE. I apologize. I will go to the conclusion. I am 

sorry. I didn’t look at the time. 

I would like to conclude, as an official interviewed in the August 

2008 OIG report stated, ‘‘It is a matter of when and where, not if, 

a violent act would happen’’ in Indian education facilities. It is a 

collective responsibility to do all that we can to ensure that our 

children do not have to risk their lives in deteriorating buildings 

without adequate supports for their well-being and personal safety 

in order to obtain an education. 

NIEA thanks the Committee for its hard work and diligence on 

behalf of the Native American communities and hopes that elevated Congressional engagement around the issues of Indian school 

safety will promote and ensure much-needed improvements. With 

your support, we are hopeful that Indian Country will have the resources, oversight and assistance it needs to create the kind of educational environment that our native children deserve. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Roman Nose follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF QUINTON ROMAN NOSE, TREASURER, NATIONAL INDIAN

EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

Chairman Dorgan and Members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, 

thank you for this opportunity to submit testimony on behalf of the National Indian 

Education Association about the shocking disparity in the safety of Bureau of Indian 

Education (BIE) schools. 

Founded in 1970, NIEA is the largest Native education organization in the nation 

with a membership of over 3,000 American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian educators, tribal leaders, school administrators, teachers, elders, parents, 

and students. NIEA is dedicated to promoting Native education issues and embraces 

every opportunity to advocate for the unique educational and culturally-related academic needs of Native students. 

NIEA advocates for the unique educational and culturally related academic needs 

of Native students, working to ensure that the Federal Government upholds its responsibility for the education of Native students through the provision of direct educational services and facilities that are safe and structurally sound. This is incumbent upon the trust relationship of the United States government with tribal nations and includes the responsibility of ensuring educational quality and access. The 

environment in which instruction and educational services are provided is critical 

to the achievement of our students and their ability to achieve academically and to 

be healthy, successful members of their communities. 

However, appalling disparities exist in the levels of safety, both structural and 

personal, in Bureau of Indian Education funded schools, creating educational environments that are a threat to the emotional and physical well-being of Native students. 

An August 2008 report issued by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Department of the Interior (DOI) titled Evaluation of Controls to Prevent Violence at 

31 

1The Office of the Inspector General, Department of the Interior Evaluation of Controls to 

Prevent Violence at Bureau of Indian Education Operated Education Facilities (August, 2008), 

p. 7. 2The Office of the Inspector General, Department of the Interior Evaluation Report: School 

Violence Prevention (February, 2010), p. 2. 3The Consensus Building Institute with the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (March 5, 2008). Final Convening Report: Negotiated Rulemaking Committee on Bureau of 

Indian Affairs-Funded School Facilities Construction, pp. 16–18. 

Bureau of Indian Education Operated Education Facilities documented the lack of 

‘‘laws, presidential orders, or directives outlining safety measures for Indian 

Schools.’’ 1 Even more shocking was the fact that grant agreements for Indian 

schools do not require a plan for addressing and preventing of campus violence. 

In a February 2010 follow up report from the DOI OIG, Evaluation Report: School 

Violence Prevention, an assessment of safety measures and procedures at 22 Indian 

schools ‘‘revealed many indicators of potential violence, deficiencies in school policies 

aimed at preventing violence, and substantial deficiencies in preventative and emergency safety procedures resulting in schools being dangerously unprepared to prevent violence and ensure the safety of students and staff.’’ 2

Given these long term and continuing conditions, Native families, communities, 

and tribal governments remain appalled that these concerns remain unaddressed 

while the well-being of Native students hangs in the balance. From the experiences 

of our membership and Native communities in Indian Country, critical areas needing immediate action include funding to repair and correct structural or equipment 

deficiencies, appropriate preparation and training of personnel and staff, implementation or development of policies and procedures that impact school safety, and increased and useful collaboration and cooperation among tribal, federal, and local 

agencies with a role in ensuring student safety and well-being 

Funding to Correct the Disrepair and Dangerous Conditions of Indian 

Education Facilities 

First and foremost is the issue of structural deficiencies and the lack of funding 

to address them remain of paramount concern. Of the 4,495 education buildings in 

the BIE inventory, half are more than 30 years old and more than twenty percent 

(20 percent) are older than fifty years. Sixty-five percent (65 percent) of BIE school 

administrators report the physical condition of one or more school buildings as inadequate. Although education construction has improved dramatically over the last 

few years, the deferred maintenance backlog is still estimated to be over $500 million and increases annually by $56.5 million. Of the 184 BIE Indian schools, onethird of Indian schools are in poor condition and in need of either replacement or 

substantial repair. In addition, lack of consistently functioning electrical systems, 

unrepaired gaping holes in security fences, broken or uninstalled surveillance cameras, and unsecurable doors and windows directly affect the ability of schools to ensure student and staff safety. 

In 1997, GAO issued a report, Reported Condition and Costs to Repair Schools 

Funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs that documented an inventory of repair needs for education facilities totaling $754 million. In 2004 the backlog for construction and repair was reported to have grown to $942 million. More recently, in March 

of 2008, the Consensus Building Institute (CBI) with the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution issued a Final Convening Report: Negotiated Rulemaking 

Committee on Bureau of Indian Affairs-Funded Schools Facilities Construction. CBI 

reported in their findings of the conditions of the schools that ‘‘security needs and 

related funding are major sources of concern for many schools,’’ ‘‘aging or poor design may lead to a substandard educational environment,’’ ‘‘operation and maintenance needs are not matched by operation and maintenance annual funding.’’ 3

In May of 2007, the Office of the Inspector General, Department of Interior, 

issued Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education: Schools in Need 

of Immediate Action, a flash report that describes the conditions at BIE schools that 

require ‘‘immediate action to protect the health and safety of students and faculty.’’ 

Although the Inspector General visited thirteen schools as part of their investigation, four schools were highlighted in the flash report—Chinle Boarding School, 

Shonto Preparatory School, Keams Canyon School, and the Kayenta Boarding 

School. In the report, the Inspector General cites deterioration ranging from ‘‘minor 

deficiencies such as leaking roofs to severe deficiencies such as classroom walls 

buckling and separating from their foundation.’’ In his conclusion, the Inspector 

General states that the ‘‘failure to mitigate these conditions will likely cause injury 

or death to children and school employees.’’ This flash report describes the alarming 

and life-threatening situation at BIE schools that the Federal Government has created in its failure to properly maintain these schools. Native children should not 

32 

4 Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education: Hearings before the National Indian Education Association, Widow Rock, AZ (August 21, 2008) (testimony of Benjamin 

Nuvamsa, Hopi Tribal Chairman). 

have to risk their lives on a daily basis to access their fundamental right to an education. 

Testifying at the NIEA-sponsored BIA/BIE regional hearing in Navajo Nation/ 

Window Rock, AZ, Hopi Tribal Chairman, Benjamin Nuvamsa stated, ‘‘our students 

are at extremely high risk because of exposure to hazardous materials in our school 

facilities. [Recently] severe reductions in annual appropriations for the building Operations, Maintenance and Repairs (OM&R) program results in the ever-increasing 

number of projects placed in the Facilities Maintenance Inventory System (FMIS). 

While waiting for funding, our students and staff are subjected to exposure to hazardous materials. Almost all schools have asbestos and radon issues which put the 

students and staff at risk.’’ 4

The purpose of education construction is to permit BIE to provide structurally 

sound buildings in which Native children can learn without leaking roofs and peeling paint. It is unjust to expect our students to succeed academically when we fail 

to provide them with a proper environment to achieve success. The amount of funding over the past few years has failed to fund tribes at the rate of inflation, once 

again exacerbating the hardships faced by Native American students. Further, the 

funding that has been allocated over the past few years will not keep pace with the 

tremendous backlog of Indian schools and facilities in need of replacement or repair. 

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)’s budget has historically been inadequate to 

meet the needs of Native Americans and, consequently, Indian school needs have 

multiplied. For FY 2008, the funding level was $142.94 million, for FY 2007, the 

funding level was $204.956 million; and, for FY 2006, the funding level was 

$206.787 million. Congress and the BIA has sought to justify the decrease over the 

past few years by stating that it wants to finish ongoing projects, however NIEA 

has repeatedly heard from several BIE schools who have indicated their ‘‘shovel 

ready’’ status. While the Recovery Act did provide $450 million to be shared among 

BIA school construction and repairs, detention facilities, roads, and irrigation 

projects, this funding has provided little headway considering the lengthy list of 

schools waiting to build and repair their facilities. Therefore, NIEA previously requested a $150.4 million increase from the FY 2010 enacted level of $112.994 million for a total of $263.4 million in FY 2011 to the BIA for Indian school construction and repair. 

The continued deterioration of facilities on Indian land is not only a federal responsibility; it has become a liability of the Federal Government. Old and exceeding 

their life expectancy by decades, BIA schools require consistent increases in facilities maintenance without offsetting decreases in other programs, if 48,000 Indian 

students are to be educated in structurally sound schools. However, it addition to 

being structurally sound, these schools must also be structurally safe. With adequate funding to address school safety through the use of perimeter fencing to secure school grounds, surveillance cameras and metals detectors to deter weapons 

and on campus crime, and improved locks and other physical security measures. 

While structural concerns may be the most visible indicators of school safety, several other areas of critical concern also need to be swiftly and adequately addressed. 

Personnel 

As noted in the February 2010 evaluation report, the staff in many Indian education facilities are unaware of or unable to implement basic safe plans such as performing lock down or school evaluation drills. High staff turnover, including principals and other administrators, results in a lack of institutional knowledge about 

safety procedures or available resources used to address and defuse potentially violent situations. In addition, lack of funding and a consistent plan for the training 

of incoming personnel means that most staff members lack adequate training areas 

critical to student well-being. Staff need to be trained to recognize and address indicators of potential violence, including gang and suicide prevention, how to address 

substance abuse, bullying prevention, and more. In addition, it is important to have 

adequate funding to support the hiring and retention of staff who can provide students with counseling and therapeutic interventions while also helping to train 

other school staff in appropriate measures for dealing with potential violent situations. 

Policies and Procedures 

Previous reports about school conditions and safety measures indicate that implementation or enforcement of policies and procedures that would help to ensure stuVerDate Nov 24 2008 10:20 Jan 18, 2011 Jkt 061712 PO 00000 Frm 00036 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\61712.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
33 

5 Currently only safety directors can enter data into the FMIS system and many are not based 

onsite at school facilities. 6The Office of the Inspector General, Department of the Interior Evaluation of Controls to 

Prevent Violence at Bureau of Indian Education Operated Education Facilities (August, 2008), 

p. 1. 

dents and staff safety are often not implemented or enforced. For example, dress 

codes that prevent the wearing of gang related colors in schools may be not be enforced with consistency or consequences. Also, procedures restricting and monitoring 

visitor access to schools are critical in maintaining a safe school environment. While 

this may be heavily dependent on the quality of the physical building and its entrances, exits, locks, and other devices, a highly quality locking door is only as useful when it gets locked. According to both the 2008 and the 2010 OIG reports, the 

evaluators found multiple doors open or unlocked during the school day. Critical 

procedures also include the need to standardize and improve the NASIS (Native 

American Student Information System) and the FMIS (Facility Management System) systems. School personnel report struggling to use either system due to multiple procedural obstacles, including lack of consistent procedures for entering data 

and no ability to use the information for monitoring violent incidents or to analyze 

for predicting or identifying a specific trend or issue for intervention as is the case 

with NASIS. Or school personnel have very limited access and ability to enter or 

share data, including school facility managers being unable to enter basic safety deficiencies of school facilities with respect to the FMIS. 5 And related to this is a need 

for oversight and support to ensure that annual safety inspections are completed 

and verified—with deficiencies addressed before the next safety inspection is due. 

Procedures also need to address and rectify policies that are counterproductive and 

outdated. For example, facilities are currently only reimbursed 49 cents on the dollar for scheduled maintenance, making it next to financially impossible to make 

much needed improvements. 

Coordination and Collaboration 

Currently multiple agencies, including tribal, BIE, Health and Human Services 

(HHS), Indian Health Services (HIS), state and local laws enforcement and social 

services all assume different roles and responsibilities for students and their families. A lack of coordination and collaboration among the various agencies has resulted in little to no service provision for Native students in schools, or services not 

being rendered in a timely manner. Therefore, having requirements for collaboration 

built into funding sources or as part of mandatory programmatic objectives would 

help overcome jurisdictional conflicts and provide incentives for collaboration. Also, 

there is a critical need for transparent and strong leadership by BIE in helping 

schools and tribes to address safety concerns through the use of workable safety 

plans, or even the implementation of a general BIE safety plan. Tribal communities 

are in the best position to advise and help develop culturally relevant and appropriate methods for addressing issues like bullying prevention, substance abuse prevention, anti-gang programming, and suicide prevention for their Native students. 

Therefore, BIE also needs to firmly support the role of tribes as the best resource 

for knowledge about culturally relevant interventions, such as peace keeping circles, 

that provide students and schools with culturally appropriate tools and models for 

behavior and conflict resolution. Finally, increased transparency on the part of BIE 

is a necessary component in correcting safety concerns in BIE funded schools. Plans 

for how to address the concerns raised in recent OIG reports should be publicly 

shared with a request for feedback and input from tribes and Native communities. 

Also, accurate lists and plans for addressing structural deficiencies and distribution 

of resources to schools is important for school planning and prioritizing of even 

minor repairs or safety equipment purchases. 

Conclusion 

As an official interviewed in the August 2008 OIG report stated, it is ‘‘a matter 

of ‘when and where’—not ‘if’—a violent act would happen’’ in Indian education facilities. 6 It is a collective responsibility to do all that we can to ensure that our children do not have to risk their lives in deteriorating buildings without adequate supports for their wellbeing and personal safety in order to obtain an education. NIEA 

thanks the Committee for its hard work and diligence on behalf of Native communities and hopes that elevated congressional engagement around the issue of Indian 

school safety will help promote and ensure much needed improvements. With your 

support, we are hopeful that Indian Country will have the resources, oversight, and 

assistance it needs to create the kind of educational environment that Native children deserve. 

34 

Senator UDALL. Thank you very much. 

Please, Dr. Fairbanks, go ahead. 

STATEMENT OF DR. ANTHONY FAIRBANKS, SUPERINTENDENT, 

PUEBLO OF LAGUNA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

Dr. FAIRBANKS. Good morning, Chairman Udall and Members of 

the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. I bring 

greetings from the Pueblo of Laguna, Governor John Antonio and 

the Laguna Pueblo Council, Laguna Department of Education 

Board Members and the staff and students to relate our story. 

Thank you very much for allowing me to be here today. It is 

quite an honor. 

Education is one of the top priorities for the Pueblo of Laguna 

and improving the education for the students of Laguna, New Mexico is an important ongoing effort. Of course, safety for our students is our first and foremost consideration. Students must have 

a safe learning environment to be academically successful. 

The intent of my testimony is two-fold: one, to raise awareness 

of the serious safety concerns of the Laguna Elementary School; 

two, to advocate the need for all Bureau of Indian Education 

Schools to be safe learning environments. 

Laguna schools struggle with the same issues other Bureau of 

Indian Education schools across the United States deal with on a 

regular basis: deteriorating infrastructure, buildings that are beyond their life expectancy, and unsecured open campuses, none of 

which can be remedied with the current limited financial resources 

available for improving or building new schools. 

For example, in the fall of 2007, we were notified to close the Laguna Elementary School due to an assessment that revealed several cracks throughout the gymnasium and several classroom 

walls. After additional investigations, we were notified that our 

students and staff were safe, barring a significant seismic event or 

a microburst wind gust. 

Two years later, a seismic event did occur just a few miles away 

from our school. Thankfully, there were no injuries from the 3.0 

earthquake. However, it was quite concerning since the study indicated our school barring a significant seismic event, and warrants 

the need for a new school. 

Our internal assessments revealed that the school’s structural 

design developed in the 1960s does not sufficiently safeguard 

against potential violence. There are no centralized entries or exit 

points due to the open parameters of the campus. 

The Laguna Elementary School currently has 41 backlogged deficiencies. The current cost to repair and/or replace these deficiencies 

is over $12 million. 

Does Indian school safety get a passing grade? I will answer this 

question using the common language of our adequate yearly 

progress report, AYP standards, and my assessment is that we are 

at beginning steps. I believe we are making progress, but continue 

to have a long way to go. 

I sincerely thank Chairman Dorgan and members of the United 

States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for your time and interest with this very important matter. A special thanks and appreciaVerDate Nov 24 2008 10:20 Jan 18, 2011 Jkt 061712 PO 00000 Frm 00038 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\61712.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
35 

tion is extended to New Mexico Senator Udall for his continued 

support regarding these issues. 

I also appreciate Senator Franken’s recognition of the Red Lake, 

Minnesota high school students that were killed five years ago. 

Seven of those students were my former students, actually, when 

I was in Red Lake as a football coach and principal of an elementary school. The unarmed security guard, Derrick Brun, was my 

cousin. So I appreciate Senator Franken’s interest and support to 

help advocate for safe school environments. 

I also want to thank Assistant Secretary Echo Hawk, Mr. Bart 

Stevens and Mr. Jack Rever. I know first-hand of their reputable 

leadership and I appreciate their sincere efforts very much. 

I respectfully urge the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to advocate for increased allocations of facility repair 

and new school construction funds to meet the needs of all Bureau 

of Indian Education schools. 

In addition to more funds, there is room for improvement within 

the Bureau’s facilities management information system. More consistent, proactive procedures addressing structural concerns in a 

timely fashion will allow for increased collaborative efforts. 

All children are entitled to have a safe and secure learning environment. With your continued support and assistance, we can 

make this much-needed initiative a reality. If there is anything the 

Pueblo of Laguna or I can do to assist your efforts in addressing 

these issues, please feel free to contact us. 

Thank you very much and God bless. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Fairbanks follows:] 

36 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. ANTHONY FAIRBANKS, SUPERINTENDENT, PUEBLO OF

LAGUNA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


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Senator UDALL. Thank you, and thanks to both of you. 

Dr. Fairbanks, in your testimony you describe a safety first 

model where you need to use the school’s operating funds to fix the 

safety deficiencies at the schools to ensure that students and staff 

are safe. Even though you later seek reimbursement for those expenses, you say that this process detracts from your ability to provide quality academic services. 

Can you describe the ways that this safety first method of ensuring student safety affects the academic services at your school? 


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Dr. FAIRBANKS. Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. The purpose of our role 

within the leadership in Laguna is that we do take safety very seriously. However, we are very limited with facility construction or 

maintenance funds. We do not receive enough in order to meet all 

the needs in safety concerns of our school. As I stated within my 

testimony, we have 41 deficiencies, well over $12 million. 

But if there is anything that we can do in order to fund an appropriate safety measure, we will do that. However, those funds 

need to come out of our general fund or our administrative funds, 

and that in turn does detract from our academic services that we 

are able to invest in also. So it is a balancing act and of course it 

is a matter of staying within our appropriated budgets. 

Senator UDALL. And clearly you want to give the top academic 

experience to your students, but because of these safety issues you 

are having to pull money away from that academic side. And that 

is obviously unacceptable. 

You describe the current system as reactive, rather than 

proactive. What recommendations do you have for making the system more proactive? 

Dr. FAIRBANKS. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I believe 

the system needs to be streamlined. And again, if we can plan and 

anticipate any potential problems or hazards to our students 

throughout the system itself I think would be very appropriate in 

addressing all of these concerns, again being proactive rather than 

reactive. 

Senator UDALL. Thank you. 

Mr. Roman Nose, I agree with you that in order to address many 

of the safety issues related to gangs, to violence, bullying and substance abuse we need more involvement from tribal communities. 

In what ways do you think tribal communities and the schools 

could partner to address some of the safety issues related to violence within their communities? 

Mr. ROMAN NOSE. I think there are several ways. One that come 

to mind as a school board member of Riverside Indian School in 

Anadarko, Oklahoma, I would like to see more training with school 

board members and make this information more available to the 

public and to parents. It is a very difficult system to get information to parents, especially if you reside in a residential school. But 

I think more outreach to parents and tribal officials, school board 

members needs to be in order. 

These are very complicated issues. I think the BIA needs tribal 

input in all areas. 

Senator UDALL. Thank you. 

Before I close the hearing, I want to just make two comments. 

As Chairman Dorgan said, the reporting on these issues out in 

New Mexico and in other places I think has been very helpful in 

terms of moving us forward, exposing the problems that are out 

there, the deficiencies, the safety issues, and helping all of us address these and move down the road. 

And secondly, I want to echo what Secretary Echo Hawk said. It 

seems to me the key, I mean both of these witnesses here and the 

previous witnesses were focusing on education, but the real key is 

in healthy families in these native communities. And we have to 

get employment into these communities. If you have communities, 

74 

which we do on the Navajo Reservation, with unemployment at 50 

percent or in some other pueblo communities higher than that, 60 

percent and 70 percent unemployment, I don’t see how you can 

have stable families. 

And so one of the policy efforts has to be how do we get capital, 

how do we get investment how do we get economic development 

within these native communities so that people in these communities can get a good job and support their families. It seems to me 

the core of this in terms of healthy families is people being able to 

get a job. 

We recently had a hearing and Chairman Dorgan brought up one 

of Senator Inouye’s bills that talked about setting up a bank or an 

organization to push capital and investment into native communities. I think that is part of this issue also that we need to address. 

So with that, I thank both of the witnesses for being here. 

Secretary Echo Hawk, thank you for staying over and hearing 

these witnesses. You know your message is heard when the Secretary stays here and we appreciate your support staff being here. 

With that, I will adjourn the hearing. The hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:10 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.] 

(75) 

A P P E N D I X 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF FAYE BLUEEYES, PROGRAM DIRECTOR, DZILTH-NA-O-DITHHLE COMMUNITY GRANT SCHOOL, NAVAJO NATION


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PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHARLES L. JAYNES, FORMER CHIEF OF SAFETY AND RISK

MANAGEMENT, BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS

I wish to thank the Committee for the opportunity to testify on Indian school safety. For twenty-six years, I had the privilege to serve as Chief of Safety and Risk 

Management for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. During my tenure at BIA we were 

able to effect many changes to enhance the safety of Indian children in schools. The 

first of those major accomplishments was to adopt national consensus building safety codes for all schools where none had existed previously. Another major step was 

to develop and implement a policy requiring that all new school construction include 

fire protection automatic sprinkler systems. The fire protection sprinkler requirement was a ground breaking accomplishment. Today that requirement is more stringent than requirements for public schools nation-wide. 

Education in Indian Country presents many challenges that are not faced by most 

public schools in America. Unlike public schools, a majority Indian schools are located in remote reservation areas that are not served by conventional infrastructure. Most Indian communities lack professional fire protection, emergency medical 

services and other community based services that are available to most American 

communities. This means that many Indian communities have no mutual aid from 

surrounding jurisdictions and may be from tens of minutes to an hour away from 

receiving emergency assistance. The remoteness factor causes a significant elevation 

in the risk assessment for Indian children attending reservation schools. 

There will be nothing in my testimony today that is new or unknown to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Over the past twenty or so years, there have been numerous 

reports by the Department of the Interior Inspector General citing deficiencies in 

Indian school safety. Additionally, there are internal reports issued by BIA task 

groups, the Department of the Interior Safety Office, and the BIA Division of Safety 

and Risk Management. All of these reports should be available to the Committee 

for your review and consideration from the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

I will attempt to group items in my testimony in order of potential risk posed by 

deficiencies in Indian schools with the highest risk being listed first. I hope that the 


513b4.eps
79 

following testimony will be helpful to the committee and welcome the opportunity 

to answer any questions that you may have. 

Existing reports indicate that as much as 40% of fire alarm systems in Indian 

schools are not at full operational capability. This calls into question whether school 

children could be evacuated in the case of an emergency on any given day. 

Many Indian schools are not being inspected for safety on an annual basis and 

abatement of safety hazards is not being accomplished as required in Federal Regulations. This failure means that the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education have incomplete data to identify the risks for children attending Indian schools. No one in government is held accountable for accomplishing the required inspections and abatement of hazards in Indian schools. 

Funding is not being requested by government agencies to correct the known safety and health deficiencies in Indian schools and as I previously stated there are deficiencies existing in schools which are not known due to the lack of inspections. 

There is and has been a general statement of concern for the safety and health 

of children attending Indian schools by the responsible government agencies. However, there has been a lack of action by those same agencies to assure that safe and 

healthful conditions are present in Indian schools. 

Below is a list that details four major areas which contribute hazards affecting 

the safety and health of children attending Indian schools. 

Fire Alarm Systems 

At any given time up to 40% of fire alarm systems in Indian schools are either 

inoperative or experience some form of system failure. A study conducted by the 

BIA’s Division of Safety and Risk Management found that many of the failed alarm 

systems were antiquated and that parts, components and service were no longer 

available for the dated systems. In addition, the study found that newer systems 

were overly complex and could not be maintained by the local maintenance staff at 

school locations. The national codes require that a functioning manual fire alarm 

system be provided in all education occupancies and an automatic detection system 

be provided in residential occupancies such as dormitories. With the advent of 

microprocessors and advanced electronics many manufacturers have produced very 

complicated fire alarm systems In addition to requiring a high level of technical expertise for maintenance these new systems are very costly. The BIA spends from 

$20,000 to $40,000 on average for fire alarm systems in new construction. These 

systems provide addressable access for system diagnostics, immediate notification to 

emergency services and other enhancements to improve reliability and rapid response by fire, EMS and public safety organizations. These systems serve an important function if the facility is located in Arlington, Virginia, Phoenix, Arizona or 

Rapid City, South Dakota because those communities have the available infrastructure to respond. I have however questioned the wisdom of purchasing such systems 

where the alarm system transmits a signal to a non-existent fire department. The 

addressable diagnostic function is of little value to maintenance personnel who lack 

an understanding of microprocessor technology and have not had sufficient training 

to utilize the systems diagnostic functions. These issues are compounded when an 

Indian school is a boarding facility. The BIA is one of few, if not the only education 

system that boards elementary age school children. Elementary age children are 

very difficult to arouse from sleep and once awake, they tend to be confused and 

disoriented. Early detection of smoke and fire is an essential life saving function for 

small children. 

My assessment of the value of fire alarm systems in Indian schools has always 

led me to the conclusion that the system should provide immediate notification of 

an emergency to the staff and students of schools so that they could evacuate the 

facility and get to a point of safety without delay. A system costing $40,000 can not 

accomplish this task if it is not functioning properly and can not be maintained. 

Most all manufacturers of fire alarm systems offer a simple alarm system that 

meets code requirements. These simple systems cost in the range of $5000 to 

$10,000 and are easily maintained with a minimum amount for training for local 

personnel. The important consideration is that systems must be reliable, for a system that is inoperable provides a sense of false security to the staff and students. 

Emphasis On Safety 

I have always disliked the term ‘‘Risk Management’’ when it applies to the safety 

of children in schools. I have always believed that a policy of eliminating risk was 

the proper philosophy. Most organizations with an effective safety program have 

adopted this view of risk. Placing the safety function at an organizational level away 

80 

from competing or conflicting functions is central to having an effective safety program. The commonly used phrase ‘‘Safety First’’ embodies this view. Throughout the 

1990’s the BIA safety organization reported to the Director of Administration. An 

internal task force report by BIA found that this was the proper placement of the 

function. That same report warned that placing the safety function under facility 

management, environmental quality or personnel management could diminish the 

effectiveness of safety due to conflicting or competing interests. In or about 2005, 

the Bureau underwent a reorganization that placed safety within a new office titled 

‘‘ Office of Facility Management, Environmental and Cultural Affairs’’. Note that 

there was no mention of safety in the organizations title. This action was interpreted by many that safety was not a priority with BIA. The basic OSHA Act requires that the safety program be placed high enough in an organization to assure 

that proper staffing and other resources are available to effectively secure the proper level of safety for employees and the public. In the case of the Federal government, the regulations (see 29 CRF 1960) state that the safety program should be 

at the level of Assistant Secretary. When the safety function is a priority to executive management, the rest of the organization tends to place more emphasis on operating safely and eliminating risk. 

The BIA has developed a comprehensive data system to track safety inspection 

findings, monitor abatement of safety hazards and provide a mechanism to fund correction of deficiencies. The system is a major achievement and is the most comprehensive system I have seen in thirty plus years of professional safety work. The 

system however, can not perform the inspections, develop abatement plans and request funds. These functions require human effort. Since 1995, the level of resources 

available for safety have diminished at a steady pace. Safety positions at the headquarters level and at the regional office have been vacant for years. Additionally, 

officials in charge of schools have not been held accountable for developing safety 

abatement plans. This means that a system costing millions of dollars is ineffective 

because there is no input at some locations and where deficiencies are identified, 

abatement plans are not developed and entered to address correction of the identified hazards. Officials at all levels of the organization should be held accountable 

if safety hazards are to be eliminated. 

Elaborate School Designs 

Schools have one simple function; to educate youth in an effective manner. Indian 

schools have fallen victim to a trend being faced by school construction nation-wide. 

Many times, school designs become a show place for architectural talent. BIA has 

built schools that are shaped like buffalo, eagle wings and a variety of other designs. 

Many of these designs incorporate building systems that are difficult to maintain 

and are very costly. Some of these design features include hallways configured in 

an elliptical arc or similar unusual configuration. Roof designs which do not contribute to the function of the building but are purely aesthetic are common. These 

various design features can double the initial construction costs of schools but more 

importantly make the facility very difficult to maintain. These maintenance issues 

often contribute safety hazards once the schools come online. Water leaking from 

roofs into electrical and fire alarm systems is a common observation cited in safety 

reports. Heating, ventilation and airconditioning systems in complex designs are 

harder to maintain which effects fire alarm operation. 

Design firms have a vested interested in elaborate designs. The design fees collected (usually 6%) are based upon the cost estimate for construction. Therefore, the 

more a school costs to build, the more money the design firm collects. Indian tribes 

may wait years for their school project to be funded for construction and subsequently they are frequently taken advantage of by project designers. Not only does 

this method increase the initial cost of a school, but it also negatively impacts the 

maintenance of the facility and subsequently increases the safety issues once the 

facility is occupied and used. A simple, functional design is cost effective, easy to 

maintain and mitigates risk by its very nature. 

School Site Selection 

A large number of Indian schools are located within the Southwestern United 

States. The Southwest region of the country is noted for its complex geology. The 

geology and soil conditions are very important when selecting a building site for 

schools. During the last twenty or thirty years Indian Schools have been plagued 

by structural issues relating to differential settlement of the structures. This settlement is demonstrated by cracks in walls, foundation failure. The BIA has spent millions of dollars addressing structural distress in Indian schools. These issues have 

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been cited in numerous Inspector General Reports and yet the Bureau continues to 

build schools in areas where the geology is known to be unstable. A recent example 

of this involves the new Ft. Wingate High School. This project was build very close 

to the site of the existing high school. The school site is located on an unstable geologic formation that is over one hundred feet deep. The old Ft. Wingate high School 

experienced constant structural distress over its life since the 1960s and the Bureau 

spent significant resources trying to stabilize that structure. The original buildings 

were built on concrete piers drilled some forty feet deep. The new high school is 

built on the same basic geologic formation and engineered fill of several feet was 

provided to offer a stabilized base for the structure. This fill material was placed 

upon an unstable geologic formation some hundred feet thick. There was documentation raising the geologic issues before the new school was built but the construction went forward. As time progresses, one can expect that the new school will 

experience safety problems related to differential settlement. Similar problems are 

well documented in BIA files for Sanostee School, Chinle Boarding School, Alamo 

Community School and many others. 

School site selection should involve not only traditional soils analysis but a stratigraphic review by a qualified geologist to assure that a site is suitable for school 

construction. This simple action could result in elimination of structural hazards as 

well as significant costs savings. In locations where unstable soils and questionable 

geology are unavoidable, there are known techniques to combat the effects of differential settlement. While these techniques may have a large front end cost, they 

are considered economical over the life span of a building. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE STANDING ROCK SIOUX TRIBE

Councilman Milton Brown Otter: ‘‘Indian and non-Indian—The schools are the 

backbone of ALL communities because without the schools there would be NO community.’’ 

Thank you for addressing the responsibility for the safety of our students in Tribal Grant Schools. Our Reservation spans across North and South Dakota encompassing 2.3 million acres, comparable to the size of the state of Connecticut. We 

have nine schools within the boundaries of our reservation; five public schools, one 

private school, and three tribal grant schools. Our largest Tribal Grant School is the 

Standing Rock Community School located in Fort Yates, North Dakota, serves 

grades Kindergarten to twelve with an enrollment of 863. The next largest grant 

school is the Sitting Bull School located in Little Eagle, South Dakota, serves grades 

Kindergarten to eight with an enrollment of 85. Our smallest grant school is the 

Rock Creek Grant School located in Bullhead, South Dakota, serves Kindergarten 

to eight with an enrollment of 65. 

In this testimony we will address the critical safety needs of these three schools 

in three areas, (1) student safety with regards to violence, facility safety with regards to (2) physical security and (3) maintenance and repair. We will also address 

the ‘‘breaks’’ in the processes, both BIE and Grant School, that contribute to many 

of these issues being reoccurring. 

Student Safety with Regards to Violence 

For Sitting Bull School and Rock Creek Grant School the internal violence takes 

on a form that many of us ‘‘cringe’’ at even the thought of but for these children, 

suicide is a reality. In the last school year only four behavioral incidents were reported in Native American Student Information System (NASIS) and that is not uncommon or uncharacteristically low. However one of these schools suffered the loss 

of one child taking his life and 5 attempts by others. These are violent acts, self 

inflicted by our students and need to be addressed. Where is the safety of the children from themselves being addressed? Break in Process. 

For the Standing Rock Community School the internal negative behavioral problems, data wise, outweigh the external, not to say the external does not contribute 

or is not the direct cause of the internal negative behavior. Some statistics from 

NASIS. . . 

Standing Rock High School which services grades 9 through 12 had 356 Negative 

Behavioral Reports in 2009–2010: 

22 were Drug or Alcohol related. 

88 directly or indirectly involved violence. 

Standing Rock Middle School which services grades 6 through 8 had 956 Negative 

Behavioral Reports in 2009–2010: 

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22 were Drug or Alcohol related. 

124 directly or indirectly involved violence. 

Standing Rock Elementary School, grades Kindergarten through 8 had 291 Negative Behavioral Reports in 2009–2010: 

4 were Tobacco related. 

160 directly or indirectly involved violence. 

Recommendations are being made in this testimony to address the key safety 

issues with regards to violence by: 

• Even non-violent and/or drug related negative behavioral incidents affect the learning of others. Adequate support staff to 

address and deter all negative behavior is needed 

• A counselor for each school • Adequate Security ex. Resource Officer for each school • Adequate hall monitors 

• There is a need to construct a student dormitory (student 

housing) on the Standing Rock Reservation. The Standing Rock 

Community School has identified this as a need to house homeless students and to serve students due to the family dysfunction and social conditions. 

• An MOA or MOU documenting and committing collaboration 

and coordination of BIA Police and BIE Schools services to assure safe and protected school zones. 

Facility Safety with Regards to Physical Security 

Security of School Grounds and Police Response Time to External 

Attacks 

Break-ins on school grounds have been emotionally crushing and costly occurrences at our grant schools. This last school year there were two break-ins at Sitting 

Bull School that resulted in over $26,000 worth of damage. Currently, Sitting Bull 

School has no surveillance cameras or security system in place. Standing Rock and 

Rock Creek do have surveillance cameras however they are outdated inadequate in 

number. As a result our schools are still very vulnerable. There is potential for 

greater harm to be done. Break in Process. 

There was a violent incident at Sitting Bull School. The authorities were called, 

immediate action was needed, Police did not arrive until the next day. The Standing 

Rock Sioux Reservation is protected by BIA police—BIE and BIA are entities of the 

Department of Interior. Break in Process. 

Recommendations for Facility Safety with Regards to Physical Security 

• Our three tribal grant schools all need security fences throughout school grounds that includes a gate system for entrance of 

school grounds. 

• Sitting Bull School needs locking exterior windows throughout 

school—they currently have to use a piece of wood to lock the 

windows in every classroom and offices. 

• All three schools need new surveillance and security systems. 

• An MOA or MOU documenting and committing collaboration 

and coordination of BIA Police and BIE Schools services to assure safe and protected school zones. 

• There is a need to construct a student dormitory (student 

housing) on the Standing Rock Reservation. The Standing Rock 

Community School has identified this as a need to house homeVerDate Nov 24 2008 10:20 Jan 18, 2011 Jkt 061712 PO 00000 Frm 00086 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\61712.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
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less students and to serve students due to the family dysfunction and social conditions. 

Facility Safety with Regards to Maintenance and Repair 

There are deficiencies at our three grant schools. This testimony references reports including ‘‘Notice of Unsafe and Unhealthful Working Conditions Reports; 

Backlog Deficiency Reports’’ and ‘‘Unofficial lists’’ provided by the administration of 

the schools. The lists go on and on and have gone on and on for years. Rock Creek 

and Standing Rock could very well qualify as providing the DEFINITION of the BIE 

‘‘band-aid’’ approach to facilities problems. The Rock Creek Grant School must be 

replaced. The original school was built in 1912 with additions and renovations made 

throughout the years to accommodate facilities deficiencies and student growth. The 

original building serves as the ‘hub’ of the school with additions of classrooms and 

a multi-purpose room serving as the kitchen, dining area and gym. There are also 

two portable classrooms that house the kindergarten and first grade students and 

the culture program. As the Bureau of Indian Affairs does not have a school construction priority list, what is the process for the school to access funding for building a new school. 

For Standing Rock, who is in the middle of a MAJOR construction overhaul, the 

amount of time and resources taken to address the deficiencies reported in the annual ‘‘Notice of Unsafe and Unhealthful Working Conditions Reports’’ and ‘‘Backlog 

Deficiency Reports,’’ they could have built a new school. The funding for the overhaul however did not come from BIE, though the recommendations and required improvements did. The construction was funded by 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. Without the ARRA funds, where would the funding 

have come from? 

Sitting Bull School is a perfect example of not having CATASTROPHIC repairs 

and needs in terms of crumbling buildings, but a laundry list of minor problems just 

waiting to explode: 

• Boiler Problems—Well documented, a replacement boiler was 

needed 5 years ago. All of which is eligible for emergency funding but the school has not received. The school does not have 

the money for a replacement. The boiler went out twice this 

last year. 

• Sewer backups throughout the year, system needs to be replaced. 

• Operating on one Boiler throughout the year, advised BIE but 

no actions have been taken to date. Must be repaired or replaced. 

• Fire system/sprinklers, school system is very old, need updated 

system installed. Water Pull Stations are very old, need upgrading. 

• Water Heater system is very old and needs upgrading. 

• Kitchen Appliances are very old. 

• Sprinkler system for stoves is very old, the ventilation system 

is dangerous, all need upgrading or replacement in these areas. 

• Gym lights are very old and can fall anytime now would injure 

anyone who is standing underneath them if this happens. 

• Bleachers in gym are very old and falling apart, this situation 

presents a danger to our students. 

• Playground equipment is very old which makes them a hazard 

for our students, some equipment is still being used from the 

old school from the 60’s and 70’s. 

• Propane tank regulators, these needs to be upgraded by 2012, 

safety hazard for whole school system. 

84 

• School Space—The school was awarded a housing unit (double 

wide) to accommodate overcrowding. Although numerous attempts have been made to get the unit—all is documented. The 

school was awarded the unit 4 to 5 years ago but has not received it to date. 

On annual basis the Office of Facility Management, Great Plains Regional Office, 

completes safety inspections and the Notice of Unsafe or Unhealthful Working Conditions Reports (Safety Reports). There are numerous deficiencies cited. In 2008, the 

Rock Creek Grant School had 57 deficiencies, the Sitting Bull School had 50 deficiencies, and the Standing Rock Community School had 256 deficiencies. In the 

most recent safety inspection for the Standing Rock Schools completed in July of 

2009, there were 230 items identified that keyed the school buildings unsafe and 

violating safety codes. Forty Three percent of the items were ‘‘Repeats’’ meaning 

they were identified last year. Forty-eight percent were identified as Serious Code 

and Law Violations and ten percent of those will take at least 6 months to correct. 

The schools are required to complete and submit abatement plans for the deficiencies that are not corrected in thirty days; however, there is no or inadequate 

funding to correct the deficiencies. Break in process. 

The bottom line is minor problems become major problems if not addressed immediately and correctly. This hearing is about BIE School Safety making the grade. 

A boiler breaks and needs repair so a school can have heat so the children can go 

to school. On Standing Rock, not only is heat a necessity for the classroom to be 

functional for the learning of our students, heat is a necessity for life. This past year 

the temperature dropped to 35 degrees below zero. . .several times. If you have no 

boiler, you have no heat, you have no heat you have no school, you have no school, 

you have no learning. A safe learning environment fosters just that. . .learning. An 

unsafe learning environment promotes and even forces absenteeism, lack of pride 

in school and self, and worse of all—loss of learning. 

Recommendations for Facility Safety With Regards to Maintenance 

and Repair 

CLARIFY WHERE SCHOOLS GO FOR WHAT? There is a major problem with 

the distribution of funds at the very top. BIE receives and distributes Operation and 

Maintenance funds while BIA receives and distributes MR, FINR and Constructions 

funds. This causes major confusion for schools. Where do they go to address major 

problems versus minor problems or when minor problems start minor and turn 

major, or spending 4 months going through the process in BIE when it should have 

been addressed through BIA. 

ADDRESS THE ‘‘BREAKS’’ IN THE PROCESS! What is the procedure for the 

BUREAU OF INDIAN EDUCATION and the BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS 

when the schools report facilities deficiencies or when those entities report facility 

deficiencies? One thing is clear. . .The process is unclear. Transparency is needed 

for trust in the system. 

ADDRESS THE PROBLEMS WITH FMIS! If the reporting system is inaccurate 

or faulty the reporting is faulty. That is a known truth. This system has been and 

continues to be a challenge for our grant schools. It is the schools’ understanding 

that this system determines funding not only for their operation and maintenance 

funding but funding for minor and major repair. Is the data in the system accurate? 

As the Rock Creek Grant School and the Sitting Bull do not have access to the system and rely on the Great Plains Regional Office Do grant schools have the capacity 

(staff and technological skills) for utilization of the system? 

ADEQUATE TRAINING: If training is required as a result of the Grantee Contract with respect to facilities—BIE provide adequate training and means for training so Schools can stay in compliance with their end of the agreement. 

Final Thoughts 

There were two major reports done by OIG with respect to safety in the schools, 

one in 2008 and another in 2010. The problems identified in both reports are commonplace in our Tribal Grant Schools. In 2008 the focus of that report was on the 

actual facilities and inadequacies within. The 2008 report assigned dollars and responsibility of those dollars to BIE. In the second report 2010 the focus was shifted 

to the grant schools and the grantee agreements and the responsibility of the dollars 

85 

to the grant schools. The problems remained the virtually the same the only difference is the shift in the blame. In the meantime nothing is done. 

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